when do your chickens lay eggs?

All times of the day for me.

 

I have 4 RIR hens and 2 BO' hens.

The BO's lay very early in the morning 6 days out of 7 (they have a 'rest' day one day per week.) One lays right on dawn, and the other is usually on the nest when I take them breakfast about 8am.

Of the 4 RIR's, two lay early in the day (both between 8am and 10am) and the other two lay in the afternoon, between 2pm and 4pm. They all take one day off per week to reset as well.

Technically, 'they' say that hens will lay an egg every 25-26 hours. This means that they 'should' lay at 8am one day, 9am the next, 10am the following day and so on, until they do a late afternoon lay and then reset for a day (have a day off.)

It never worked that way with my girls. They seem to have nailed down their own schedules, and I can pretty much look at the clock at any time of day and know how many eggs are waiting for me. I'm not sure if this is usual, or if I have little weirdo chickens, lol.

They have been laying for about 3 months, and are now 8 months old, or thereabouts.

- Krista

 

Each hen is an individual and will do her own thing. Hormones cause an egg yolk to start its journey through the hen’s internal egg making factory. Different things trigger those hormones, telling the hen when to start the next egg. Some of the things that trigger those hormones to tell he hen to start another yolk is whether she has laid an egg. Often they start the next egg about 20 minutes after the last egg was laid. But time of day has a part too. If it is too late in the day the hen won’t start one but will wait until the next morning. I’m sure there are other things that help trigger that. Some hens don’t lay every day but automatically skip a day or more. Some hens get messed up and start more than one yolk in one day. If they start two at the same time, you usually get a double yolked egg. If there is a space between when the yolks start through that internal factory, a hen might lay two eggs in the same day. Often the second egg has a thin or soft shell because the shell gland did not have enough shell material to cover both eggs.

On average it takes about 25 hours for an egg to make its journey through the hen’s internal factory. That is an average, not an exact number. For some it might be 23 hours, others 27 hours. But most are pretty close to 25 hours. That means most hens will lay about an hour or so later every day until they get so late in the day that they skip a day.

I have had hens that lay an egg practically every day at the same time of the day. At one time my green egg layer would lay an egg before 9:00 or she would skip that day. That was pretty easy to track since she was the only one that laid a green egg. I’ve had several hens that lay a little later in the day every day. I’ve had some that I never determined a pattern, they might lay any time of the day.

They are each an individual. They don’t all follow the same pattern.

 

I've got two pullets newly laying. Having the time and inclination to observe closely what happens when and where, I've found that the 25 hours thing is pretty darn accurate.
One just started a couple days ago, laying late in the day so will be curious to see if/when she skips a day...or pops one out from the roost.