When will they start laying

[ewer0t]

My chicks are about 4 weeks old and I have 6 so when will they start laying in about a couple months right? Also how many eggs will I recieve each year If they are all hens.

 

[thecatumbrella]

What breeds do you have?

 

[kattabelly]

This time of year, production breeds / hybrids will likely start laying somewhere around 20 weeks old assuming you're in the northern hemisphere. Could be a week or two earlier; could be later.

"Heritage" breeds may well take longer.

How many eggs you'll get per year depends on what type of chickens you have, and it's impossible to predict exactly. It will pretty much always be higher their first year laying, when they may well lay right through the winter instead of moulting in the autumn and then likely not starting to lay again until spring when the days start getting longer. Replacing some of your older birds with new chicks or pullets each year is one thing you can do to keep production up if that's important to you. Providing artificial light over winter is another, though this can have a negative affect on the birds' reproductive health which would be something to consider if you plan on keeping them for longer than a couple of years.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Different things influence when a pullet starts laying. Being in California this time of the year the length of days will no be a problem for you. So at least you don't have to worry about that.

Breed can have something to do with it, but also what age did the pullet's mother and grandmothers start laying. You can get quite a difference even in the same breeds.

If I have 10 pullets of what I'd call a normal production full-sized fowl breed like Sussex, Australorp, Rhode Island Red, Delaware, Rock, or Wyandotte this time of the year, I'd expect one or two of them to start laying by 20 weeks. I'd expect half of them to be laying by 24 to 25 weeks, and probably all of them to be laying by 28 to 29 weeks.

I've had some start as early as 16 weeks. Just a couple, that's fairly unusual. I've had some not start laying until 9 months. Again fairly unusual. You have 6. Not a large sample size but not bad. As they are now 4 weeks old I'd expect you to see an egg or two in July with August being a good month.

Good luck!

 

[debid]

Normal has a pretty big range. The earliest for me have tended to be the hybrid layers and the EEs (which are a production type from the hatchery I prefer). I have an assortment of 4 this time and expect the first egg will be from the gold sexlink at 16 weeks. Because, every gold sexlink I have gotten from this source has started between 15.5 and 17 weeks. The consistency has been incredible. But these are a commercial type of layer, there was a lot of effort put into selecting for maximum efficiency. Birds selected with other priorities are going to be more variable.