How many eggs does a chicken lay each week?
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Chickens | 176 comments
“How come there were only four eggs in the basket this morning?'”
Danny asked when he brought in my breakfast tray.
Admittedly I had given John Coe four when he came to mow the lawn this week, but only eight in a week! Danny was concerned, “What are we going to do about our fry ups?”
Danny’s mother kept chickens when he was a child and as a Poultry Instructor, passed on her knowledge. Despite this both of us were a bit naive when it came to keeping chickens ourselves. Just before we collected our chickens three years ago, I bought a pretty little basket in a sale in Newmarket. We planned to buy six hens and I assumed that I’d collect six eggs a day. That basket gathered dust whilst we waited for the first egg.
We bought hens on ‘point of lay’ and threw a party to celebrate their arrival. The guests peered through the gloom at the hens and discussed how to deal with an egg glut. After the party we decided to ask our chicken feed supplier for advice. As we had zero eggs, we must be doing something wrong.
‘Try these,’ he said, producing a box of china eggs with a flourish. ˜The hens will take a peek at them and it will give them the idea.’ I hurried home, opened the nesting box and made plump tempting nests of sweet smelling hay to hold the china eggs.
The chickens seemed happy enough. I observed them having dust baths, sunbathing on the warm roof of their ‘day centre’ and running for a handful of grain in the afternoon. Every day I peeped into the immaculate but egg-free nesting box and trudged back to the house, disappointed. Summer turned to Autumn and then to Winter. ‘Hens go off lay in the Winter, so don’t expect any eggs until the Spring,’ a kind friend advised. I could have hit her.
We were away over New Year and when we got back, there were only five chickens in the pen. I opened the hen house door and there was the sixth hen, absorbed in her task. She barely noticed me as she was clearly straining. I rushed back to the house to tell Danny the breaking news. We crept down to the hen house an hour later and saw our first egg lying resplendent in a clutch of white china fakes.
Tricks and Tips:
- Chickens are at their egg laying prime for the first two years. After this, their egg laying decreases as they get older. Serious egg producers replace their hens after two years.
- Chickens are seasonal layers. When daylight hours are short their laying decreases. Laying gradually builds up from January and starts to decrease from mid September.
- Before you get your first chickens decide whether they are going to be layers or pets, or a mix. If you are going to replace them after a couple of years, don’t give them names. Danny named each of our chickens when they arrived (we got a mix). Need I say more?
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I’m getting 6 pekin chickens tommorow, my first time keeping chickens. I have just been reading all the posts and have to say how useful this has been. I just wondered how many eggs a pekin chicken is likely to lay? Thanks Anne
Sorry to hear about your loss but it seems you have a fox who will climb, I suggest you cover the pen and make sure your fowls are locked up each night, as for the fowls using the same nest box that will always happen, I have 2 nest boxes for my 4 bantams and one day the eggs can be in 1 box and another day they will be in the other, don’t worry it happens all the time. Regards Robbo.
Hello,
I wanted you to know that I have been doing my homework on my rescued girls. The girls are red sex linked and my rooster is a black sex linked.Since I have written last my children and I built them a condo!! 🙂 But they all want to lay in one box and one of my girls is always in the box and will only come out to eat… Why might that be?? When she comes out my rooster (we named Jack) chases her til she goes back in the roost??We are confused.Please help..Also we just lost 2 due to a hungry animal.My children are not happy. We put 4 traps all the way around the pin. Is that what we should do? Whatever it is its climbing up and over,there are no holes dug around the pin any suggestions on that? Thank you for any information you can give for my girls and I.
Hi Amber
I’m sorry but I haven’t had this problem to date.
Hello Claire
Thanks for answering this question. Much appreciated.
Amber
I had 4 warrens that were serial egg eaters after a rat problem. They never stopped despite mustard eggs and collecting eggs from under the hen’s bottoms straight after they were laid. I’m afraid that the advice I was given (and carried out ) was a cull. I’ve just got 2 Shavers and One of those lays soft shelled eggs so I’m concerned that they may start to eat their eggs!!
does anyone know how to stop chickens from eating their eggs? I have a rat problem (not as bad as it used to be), and the rats sometimes eat eggs, so they have sort of taught the chickens how to do it. “look here dumb hens! you can actually EAT these things you lay!”. maybe I need more nest boxs???
zoe amber
Hi Jane, you’re a star! I’ll give that another go today. Most of the books I’ve found don’t give any advice on chicken ailments and take it for granted that you know the anatomy of a chicken!
cheers.
Hi Radish,
If you follow the neck down, the crop, like a sac, is situated at the end before the chest starts. You may find a better description on the internet.
When we treated our hen we gave her the oil,(I would think cod liver oil should work the same), and gently massaged the area immediately afterwards for about 5 minutes to dislodge any blockage. We repeated the procedure about 2 hours later. Hope this helps.
Hi Jane, that’s a possibility as they do wander off down the field every day on border patrol! One question though, where exactly is the crop? Excuse my ignorance. I did give her a small amount of cod liver oil earlier, will that have the same effect?
Steven, thanks for the suggestion. She doesn’t actually spend much time in the nest box so I’m pretty sure she isn’t broody. We had one do that very early and she wouldn’t budge from the nest!
Thanks for all the advice.
Radish,
I meant to write LONG stalks, not log stalks!