When do chickens start laying eggs?

[LisaYates]

Thanks everyone for sharing........................I still havent gotten another egg. When we got our chickens we were given 4 hens and a rooster. Well turns out we have 3 hens and two roosters. We have been told that the two roosters trying to show their dominance could have the hens in an uproar and not producing?? Any word on that??

 

[azoh10]

Thank you! I Love the feed back.

 

[azoh10]

I just found my first green egg from one of my hens don't know who it was but very very exciting.

 

[azoh10]

Hi

I got all my chickens as babies chicks on April 7th its now Aug 13th and I now have them laying eggs. So thats about 4 months.

 

[Lulabell Farm]

Question. Mine are only 17 weeks and what little comb they have is turning bright red. It's early but so who knows. I have kept
the nest boxes closed off per the advice that you don't want them using it as a bedroom bathroom. Does anyone know when I should set up the nesting boxes?
Thanks!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Question. Mine are only 17 weeks and what little comb they have is turning bright red. It's early but so who knows. I have kept
the nest boxes closed off per the advice that you don't want them using it as a bedroom bathroom. Does anyone know when I should set up the nesting boxes?
Thanks!

Open the boxes - at this point your girls are likely well in the habit of roosting. If you do see someone attempting to sleep in a nest box, it's simple enough to just move her out and place her on the roost.

 

[Lulabell Farm]

Thanks. Right now they are in time out. I don't know if they realize that. Thursday night my bantams went missing. Had neighbors helping me look with flashlights and I was in full panic. Next am I got up at dawn and they flew out of a tree at me bad girls. I had looked and called in that area 10 times at lease. Now they don't want to go in the coop for me. Since the runaways got a taste of freedom I want them in the coop well before dusk. Typically I can just stand by the open run door-shake the meal worm container and they come running. The last two days they come but look at me and went the other direction. So frustrating. Like herding cats. Does anyone have advice? I'm thinking maybe if I don't let them free range for a few days it will reset their little brains??? Hence the time out.

 

[SEHchicks]

I will be interested to see suggestions as well - mine free range in the grassy small side yard so no place to hide. But since I hang up their brand new, galvinized waterer and feeder, we couldn't get them back in the coop - they seem to be so scared of the new hanging objects that they refused to go back into the coop. So, after such struggle to get them back in, we are not letting them out tonight! And if they won't use the new devices (we kept the old waterer and feeder still in there) tomorrow, we may have to keep them in their a while longer until they are no longer afraid of the items.

 

[Tamigirl37]

Both of my Roadies started laying at 18 weeks. They both started laying on the same day. I was so excited. They laid a couple of rubber eggs but after that I have been getting two eggs a day since about early Aug. They laid their first eggs in the nesting box. About a few weeks before they started laying I put a couple of plastic Easter eggs in their nesting boxes. I even went as far as painting them brown. For some reason mine like to lay in a nest that already has an egg in it. My chickens are not completely free range. We do let them out everyday, but not for all day. We usually let them out in the evenings or sometimes mornings. They have a bigc hicken yard so they are more likely to lay in their boxes. Free range chickens have been known to lay anywhere. Good Luck.

 

[tannerhouse]

At 27 weeks my americauna finally laid her first egg. She put it right in the nesting box. She's been laying for a week now and we've gotten 5 eggs total. She puts them in the nesting box every time - it's so amazing! It makes you wonder how they know to do that. Each egg I get seems like a small miracle. Here's a picture of her first egg.

So beautiful !!!!!