When will my chickens lay eggs?
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Chickens | 661 comments
Even though I know that egg laying is unpredictable at this time of year, it’s always a bit disappointing when I lift the lid of the nesting box and there’s only one. An egg from Carol. She is firing on all cylinders now and producing one egg a day, the maximum that a domestic hen can produce.
“What’s going on with the other four chickens?” I think as I stump back through the garden in my dressing gown and wellies.
The other four chickens are elderly maidens, well into their third year. I know that after two years egg production diminishes but somehow I hoped that the organic food and beautiful adornments in the pen might make a difference. Of course they don’t. As the years roll by, the chickens will produce fewer and fewer eggs until they go to that great pecking ground in the sky.
The pretty white bantams, have never been very obliging on the egg laying front. In their prime, they probably only laid two or three eggs a week. They are not a laying strain and we knew this when we bought them. But we have discovered that they are very photogenic and are happy to model endlessly.
I’ve been checking the hen’s combs. A pink comb indicates that a chicken is going broody, and will not lay. They are all a bright vibrant red, including Mrs Boss (this chicken won The Broodiest of all Known Chickens Award 2004, 2005 and 2006).
So you can imagine my delight when I lifted the roof of the nesting box this morning and found two small eggs nestling beside Carol’s large speckled brown one. I sprang back to the kitchen to make the perfect breakfast omelette.
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thank you so much.. around here we mostly have like tractor supply that sells the chicks not sure if they know exactly what they get in or not.. we have a sale barn that has some on occasion when would be a good time to check to see if they had any? and what signs are good to look for on healthy chicks? god i really sound stupid dont i.. ha ha
chucknchristy if you want green eggs the breed you need is called araucana.check for a good poultry breeder they will sort you out. as for holding your chickens it wont hurt them one bit it will just make them tamer.
i kinda thought they would be ok with the dogs IF the dogs dont chase or try to eat them. can you tell me a good breed to get that lays the green eggs? to me the green eggs taste better might just be my imagination but hey you cant find them in the store .. lol.. thanks and i also love this site. i have had ducks in the passed for my boys loved them to death we keeped them inside till they got their feathers should we do that with the chicks also? and does it hurt them to hold them alot? will that make them any tamer?
I have had only one egg out of six hens for four days.
they get fresh water everyday I have used a light in the hen house to extend the day longer 15 1/2 hours longer. there is 3 nest filled with sting wood shavings mixed with cedar chips one plastic egg filled with rocks for waight and glued shut. They have plenty of feed layena by purinia mills mixed with oyster shells and a organic dewormer. I have checked for mites lice worms and no signs what so ever. The light bulb is 90 watts.
Is there another way to get them to start laying? a person at work told me to jently squeeze the back end of the hens, But that sound like a dumb idea to me. any more info will be great I have been searching the net for information. I just have not found the info I need.
Fiona,
Thank you for your kind words. Being new to chicken-keeping I naturally wondered why Martha died. As you say perhaps she was just a weaker hen. My son gently reminded me this morning that at least she wasn’t a battery hen. She had access to organic food and greens and had room to move.
Kind regards,
Jane S
Hello Jane S
I’m so sorry that I couldn’t get back to you yesterday and very sad to hear that you hen died.
I couldn’t have given you the answer to save her. Every now and then a young hen keels over and dies, it might be a virus or just that she is not very strong. We had two beautiful lavender Pekins that both keeled over and died within a day in their first year.
What you did was right. Isolate the hen and give her access to food and water. If she feels cold bring her indoors and wrap her in a thick towel.
Over the past six years I have had one hen that pulled round and a few that just didn’t make it. It’s always so sad when an animal dies.
Fiona,
Sadly lost our ill hen overnight. Just hope it wasn’t anything we’d done wrong. We are going to worm our other hens as a precaution, although the remaining five seem fine.
Jane S
My hens’ yolks are rather pale. What can I add to their feed to improve the colour?
I feed them on organic layer’s pellets. They look beautifully healthy
and their eggs are delicious, just rather pale.
That’s interesting about the runny poo – some of mine have this too – I wondered if this was a maturity thing as the oldest of my 6 hens don’t have it.
I love this site by the way – so helpful and interesting.
jane s your hens may be coming into molt if her comb as started to go pale.as for the runny poo if there on layers mash or layers pellets give then a good feed of corn late in the afternoon it stops in there crops longer theres to much goodness in mash and pellets on there own
chucknchristy depends what temprement your dogs are my dog died about 6 month ago a cross chocholate lab.i let him in with my 150 hens not a problem he was more scared of them then them of him.hold the chicks in your hand and let the dogs lick them and smell them over a couple of month i cant see any problem.