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 Charlotte
Thanks for this. It’s so hard to find good chicken breeders.
Theres a lady who does all the special breeds and hybrid layers at Colsterworth 10 miles south of Grantham Lincs NG33 5– sorry dont know the last bit of postcode. She’s open everyday. Just ask someone when you get there.
Hi Tammy
Thanks for taking the time to gives us all this information. Interesting that the free range birds lay more quickly than the ones in the run.
Weather changes are an important factor as regards egg laying.
I reckon feed makes a difference too. We use a mix of organic layers pellets and fresh vegetable scraps and oyster shells.
Hi. We have had backyard chickens for years. Our experience is that if kept outside and allowed to free range the hens will start to lay (usually) at around 3-4 mo of age. If kept in our pen usually it is around 6mo of age. We have hens that are upwards of 10 yr old and some are still laying. I have noticed that the weather plays an important factor in their laying or not laying …..as in if a front is coming in with rain most of them won’t lay or if there is a sudden chance in the daily temps (we had a cool snap here last week and only 3 out of 20 hens laid an egg). Also I wonder if feed mix has anything to do with it as in are they getting proper minerals, etc…. We feed our egg shells along with goat milk that isn’t fresh any longer to our hens for calcium and table scraps and any veggies that are discarded.
Hi Linda
POL can mean that but all too often you are sold pullets that are not.
Unless you use artificial lighting there will be a stage in the winter when your hens will stop laying. This is longer as the hens get older.
We bought our pekin bantams as pets and they are just that, pets that lay an occasional egg. Our hybrid layers laid an egg a day in their prime but now they are four years old their egg laying is sporadic. They are no less friendly than the pekins.
Marans are particularly good layers. Carol is three and giving us an egg a day.
I will ask The Chicken Lady for suggestions as to suitable breeds for you and get back to you within the next couple of days.
Hello The Hen House
Everyone seems to have their favourites, chicken wise. We spent ages thinking about different breeds but when it came to it we bought what was available at the time. We bought our first 6 from a breeder just outside Long Melford.
The Chicken Lady has bought some lovely hens from a local breeder. I’ll ask for his contact details and get back to you within the next couple of days. We all live on the Suffolk/Cambridgeshire border so it would be reasonably local for you.
Forgot to ask any ideas of where to go to buy the birds . My location is Cambridgeshire.
Have roamed the internet and located a place on Oxfordshire which was at the East of England Show but other than that ….
Hi everyone, well having read your letters reckon I can now really have a hen house!
I am particularly interested in the Bluebelle birds as I am told they are placid and sweet natured. How many birds do you think one should have first time around. Definately not one I hear you say. They will have the run of the garden part of the day, and the hen house will be sheltered behind a run of blackcurrant bushes.
The “other” breed I have seen is Buff Sussex at the East of England show yesterday but do not know much about them.
I really am a first time chicken keeper so your comments will be appreciated.
Hi
I am about to purchase 4 – 6 chickens and I was lead to believe POL meant they would all be laying fairly soon after purchase. Reading all your comments I seam to have got this all wrong.
Could anyone give me advice on which breeds lay in the winter – it would be nic to get a mixed bunch with possibly one or two that maybe lay over th winter months (when there ready to ofourse)
Also want these birds as pets so any suggestion what would make a good mix of six would be great.
Thanks
Linda
Hi Justine
I have found that hens seem to prefer to lay sitting on in a nesting box that is easily accessible and warm and dark.
Our nesting box is accessed from a small door in the hen house.
I reckon that you may have more success if the nesting boxes are more accessible. Why not try putting one at floor level and see what happens?
I have seen nesting boxes attached to the wall of a hen house and they seemed to work fine. They were in fact wooden wine boxes. Perhaps the perches are putting them off using them. Hens don’t sit on a perch to lay an egg, they sit in the nesting box.
All my hens were about eight months old before they started to lay. Some breeds lay earlier. It could be that they are just not ready to lay yet. A good indicator is that the comb turns red.
The small egg that you found is a good sign and indicates that at least one hen will start laying soon.
Extremes of weather can put hens off lay but they have to be laying first!
Hi Jane
We bought point of lay chickens in August and got the first egg in January. Sometimes point of lay is not quite an accurate description! Hope that they lay soon.
Our Maran, Carol, lays well for us. A large brown egg a day. Although she goes off lay between October and January. She is 3 years old.
Hi, We have just got 4 chickens, 2 that are about a year old and we have had a egg from each one everyday, 2 Marans which are point of lay but no eggs yet, I keep checking every morning and hoping. The 2 older ones tend to lay about 11am every morning. Fingers crossed for the Marans!!