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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Hi Tim
What a lovely spot for a restaurant!
Exciting news about your hens. I wish you the best of luck with them. Keeping hens is great fun!
we own a small restaurant with accommodation near whitby on the coast. we struggle to find good e free range eggs and alot of our friends keep there own. so we have read up and read some more and done more research, and guess what we have 16 hens arriving in two weeks. we are having a proper house biult to hold twenty birds and a large run for them to play in, plus we have plenty of kitchen scraps for them to eat….will keep you guys posted
tim
Hi Cynthia
Unfortunately this has never happened to me so I can’t help you here!
Often the eggs are still warm as a hen has just laid an egg and has been sitting in the nesting box and warmed all the eggs.
Lucky you with double yolkers.
My grandchildren have 4 hens which have been laying for 4 months regularly. BUT for the past week they have sometimes had 6 eggs per day and we collected 4 eggs yesterday morning, 4 eggs first thing this morning and at lunch time we collected 4 more eggs! It isn’t possible that we have made a mistake as the eggs were still warm. I didn’t think this was possible. Has anyone else experienced this? They also regularly lay double yoke eggs.
Hi Sandy
Thanks for dropping by.
Great reading about your chickens.
Thanks for solving Christine’s mystery!
Hi Everyone,
I’m in California, USA. Nice to read all the comments and tips. Glad to hear that others love their chickens too, name them all and would also never “chop them” because they are getting older.
I suddenly started with chickens 3 years ago when a farmer gave me 40 when he was moving. I’ve been learning every step of the way ever since then! I now have 32 hens of different breeds and ages, and three roosters. I get 9 eggs one day and 12 the next. Last spring it was from 24 to 30 a day. We use all we want and sell extras to the neighbors.
To Christine about the hen putting hay on her back- she’s “Putting On Her Cammo.” They will put hay on their back as an instinctive way of “hiding” or camouflaging themselves and their eggs to avoid danger. Their idea is “now you can’t see me.” Especially the young ones, its their way of getting all “nesty”. It’s some of the cutest behavior they do when they start laying.
Hi Jane
Chickens are responsive creatures. It could be the weather. They could need worming. they could have lice. I don’t know where you are based but the warm weather is enough to befuddle a chicken around here. We have only had a handful of overnight frosts this “winter” so far. Chickens need to rest each year.
I am no expert but what I would do is Spring clean your chicken house and treat the house and chickens for mites. I’d also worm the chickens and start feeding them supplementary greens – grass and green kitchen scraps. Hang a cabbage near their house so that they have to jump to peck it.
Divert them. And they will soon be laying again.
My 12 chickens have all suddenly stopped laying. They are around 12- 18 months old. They laid throughout the winter (albeit decreased) but about a week ago they stopped. Nothing is taking the eggs – they are definitely not producing any.
Any ideas?
Hi George,
Thanks for the tips on how to create an artificial egg – very handy.
i got 14 Dominique hens and 2 cocks this winter.i made a tiny hole in an egg from the store and took everything out and filled it with hot glue so the hens wont eat it.i did that on the first day i got them.the next day (Sunday) after church i got 4 eggs. now i get 7 eggs a day. that is 49 eggs a week.for some reason some of my eggs have tiny blood inside them.