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 Fn,
yes, the colour has strengthened, though I must add that for Araucana eggs, the colour goes all the way through the shell, and it was more of a case of the initial few eggs had a darker, greenish coating.
We have to all bagsy first go at collecting the eggs here as it such a joy to find them! 🙂
Hi Mandy,
we found that the combination of fresh soft cut straw bedding, a course of worming powder, some lice treatment and lastly a couple of china eggs-1 in each nest – (or even a shop egg just for a few days) did the trick. I don’t know which made the biggest difference, but we went from none to three eggs per day from the oldest 3 girls a few days after completing the above. i suspect, as fn suggests, that once wormed and de-loused they will soon settle down anyway.
Hi Mandy
They will settle down soon. Often the arrival of new hens just puts eveything out of kilter for a while as it disturbs the status quo.
Thanks fn, thats useful info. We douldn’t possibly knock them on the head. We got the new ones form the same place, they are not given artificial light, they are in a barn. We went yesterday to speak to the farmer and he said if ours had worms then the new ones could have picked up worms straight away and thats why stopped laying. My husband has treated for worms yesterday and will treat for lice. Our nesting box is empty, as they have only been using it for a toilet he stopped putting any bedding in it but will start again today and clean the box out every day. He does a thorough clean out every week with out fail of the house and run. It just seems to us that if the new ones were laying but came to us and stopped then whats the problem. Oh well, will try your ideas and wait in hope for some lovely eggs.
Hi Rosieposey
That’s interesting. That the colour is strengthening on the eggs.
One of my greatest pleasures is collecting the eggs in the morning.
Hi Mandy
Your hens are getting on a bit. Carol is three and is laying evey day now but I think that we are lucky. Most people around here knock their hens on the head at 2 years old as they are getting passed their best. Our hens are here for their natural life. The older hens 4 yeras old and only lay an occaisioanl egg.
Where did the new hens come from. Was it a commercial setup with lights to extend the daylight hours?
If your husband saw a worm in the poo there are bound to be loads of others. They veer away from the light very quickly.
My advice is to worm and treat your chickens for lice. Spring clean their houses and give them lavish nesting materials in the nesting boxes.
We have found that a sharp frost/hot day/thunderstorm can put them off lay. They are responsive creatures and a good clean out can switch them back into laying mode.
I am sure that you do this already but if you clean out the chicken house every week and remove the poo from the nesting box everyday, your chickens will be happier and more likely to lay eggs.Â
Thats really great that you have eggs now Rosieposey, they look lovely.
Can any one help us with our problem. We have 5 Chickens who have not laid since september , they are nearly 3 years old. We added 3 more in January who laid an egg each for the first 3 days they were with us and then they stopped. We wondered if a fox was scaring them as one did get some of our chickens from another house last august. We cannot understand why they are all now not laying. Last week my husband did notice a worm in the poo but only once, we found out today that the worms live inside the bird and that will stop them laying, so we have brought worm treatment today. They are very happy and eating and drinking well and have all their feathers, it’sfrustrating that we have no eggs, they are pets but the eggs are lovely. Can anyone help us with some advice.
Thanks Fn- they are absolutely scrummy here too!
The blue/ green eggs have also become bluer each day which is exciting. The dark brown ones were indeed from the copper black maran (thought as much). Can’t wait for the younger ones to start in the next few weeks (fingers crossed).
Hello Rosieposy,
The pictures of your eggs are beautiful! I love the green ones.
We now have two hens laying. The eggs are delicious.
Yippee! update: after worming and adding mites/lice treatment, a week later and we got a rainbow of eggs. I took a couple of photos for all to see http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Rosi.zalduataylor/ChickenAndEggs
They are from Angelina (Araucana), either Bonnie (Welsummer or a copper black Maran – not sure which one laid them yet) and Maria (SL Wyandotte) hope you like them as much as I do
Hi Mark
That’s great. Are you using artificial light during the winter months?