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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Hi,
We have 5 hens and we think one rooster (starting to crow) Born in January. (No eggs yet) Recently the local school has asked if we wanted 6 more that have just hatched. How long would we need to keep the new ones separate?
Hi Mimi
They would need to be kept seperate for at least three months (until they reach about a third of their body weight). They would also need a heat lamp to keep warm if they are newborn chicks.
if i bought a day old Crele Old English Bantam would the other bantam like it
and is it a good idea
Hello Hannah
I can’t answer all your questions as I don’t really understand a lot of your questions. Perhaps it might be a good idea to go to the library and find a book on caring for chickens/bantams. This and talking to local chicken breeders and owners might give you all the answers that you need.
It’s great that you are really into keeping chickens but perhaps you need to just rest, observe your hens and discover what you already have before branching out further.
All fowl need a stress free environment. Only add to your flock when you feel that all your hens are settled and content. You can’t buy your way out of a problem – if you have an unsettled flock adding more hens will only add to your problems.
Meanwhile it might be a good idea to consider venturing onto the chicken forums – they can offer valuable advice and you might enjoy them.
we bought a new house for the chooks the house is really big so i think that that might help
i put a normal bantam egg in there laying area and they won’t go near the egg what if we bought fertile ones and they wont hatch them and they die can we buy one that are only a few days of weeks old
Hello Hannah
You can get bantam versions of all full sized laying breeds. As they are much smaller you could have a bigger flock in a smaller space.
We have bantams, one full sized Maran hen and a pair of guinea fowl. The three latter rule the roost as they are far larger than the bantams. They were all raised by bantams but when the get bigger they are naturally stronger and the leaders of the pack.
The Maran and the Guinea fowl hen do lay bigger eggs but the bantam eggs are much sweeter with a bigger ratio of yolk to white so they are sought sfter in the UK and people are willing to pay a premium for the eggs.
My advice would be to stick to bantam versions of the bigger breeds.
You need a rooster to fertilise the eggs that your hens lay.
Your hens have gone broody – they will not lay eggs but will happily sit on a clutch of eggs. Why not get some fertile eggs to put under your hens?
If yu don’t want your hens to be broody, make an anti broody coop see here https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=289. This gets them out of the state within days and you will soon have eggs again.
if we bough fertile eggs for the bantam to hatch and do you need a rooster if u want your chickens to lay normal eggs and then fertile
my chickens are brooding all together all three of them wat does that meen they do it in this dirt patch alll the time but the same place with no egg under neith
thats great news would rhode island white go well with bantams
Hi Hannah, Any egg laying breed will do. You dont want the breeds that are bred for meat as they are too big. I would get a few baby chicks or buy a few fertile eggs from a neighbor and let the bantam sit them. Either way the bantams will get along well with no pecking order problems. Bringing in full grown hens may cause a problem. Because of the size they may bully the bantams. It takes 21 days to hatch fertile eggs. It will take awile for egg production when you start like this. The other choice is to keep 2 houses and 2 feed troughs. If you do that make sure you put the new birds in the new house for 24 hours when you get them, that way they will know where they live and not try to move in on the bantams. Susie.
what chickens go well being together with bantams
thanks
Hi Hannah, I use hay but its more a convenience for me than anything. I have pygmy goats and keep a bale of hay in case it rains and i have to feed them when they wont go out to pasture. Goats are desert animals and dont like rain. I use wood chips on the floor of the coop as it is an excellent material to keep the place nice and clean. I dont think sand or dirt would be good. Hope this helps. Susie..