What time do chickens lay eggs??

[bahamabanty]

Hello, I am in the Bahamas, our climate is similar, they lay between 9 and noon in my yard, sometimes I get an early egg around 7. Yes some do announce when they have laid an egg, others don't. You could put a golf ball, a nice round stone or a fake egg in the yard nest box. It really works, my chickens only lay in the box with the golf ball. I have three boxes, even if I switch the ball around they will only lay in the golf ball box,

 

[chick peeps]

my hens will often walk back to their enclosure to lay even though they are free ranging through the yard. I think that if you if you keep them in their coop for a week or two after they have started laying, then they will only lay in the nest boxes. I'm pretty sure that's why mine do it, they don't know ( for the most part) that they can lay anywhere else. I don't have much of a problem with my hens making noise. Only one of my hens - a black austrolorp - will try and wake the world with her squawks, though she is never consistent. She normally does it only two or three times a month.

 

[sayga]

Someone else here said chickens lay about 25 hours apart, and skip a day when it gets too late in the evening. I've heard 26 hours, and I haven't timed them, but I think that'd be a fun experiment. But I do know some mornings when I come out at 7:15am, there are 3 or 4 eggs in the box already, all still hot. This past week, I've been collecting eggs after work, or my kids get them when they get home from school. We have 5 laying hens, and usually get 4 eggs a day (depending on who is on their off day).

My chickens are 1 year old, so still very young. They definitely sing an egg song. If "sing" and "song" can be accurate descriptions of the cackling clucking bwoking noises they make. There are times when they just get noisy too, and it doesn't seem to be because they laid an egg or are about to; they're just making their presence known. Or begging loudly for treats.

I have only one chicken who lays outside the nest boxes. Twilight (named for the My Little Pony, NOT the vampire books!) is an Easter Egger and she likes to hide her eggs. A kid at my daughter's birthday party found one in the basement window well! I've found them underneath the coop too. All the others will return to the coop and nest boxes to lay, no matter what time of day it is or how far they've free-ranged. Twilight doesn't seem broody, and isn't making nests in the yard, so I think she may just be too lazy to go back to the coop some days. I just keep an eye on her and when I haven't seen her green eggs in a couple days, I check under the coop or in the bushes for stray eggs.

Lastly, my nest boxes used to be filled with pine chips, but then I started bringing home shredded paper from the office shredder, and that works just fine. They took a couple days and a dummy egg before they realized they could lay eggs in the paper (the first 2 days, they laid their eggs on the pine chips on the coop floor), but once they figured out the new material, they were good.

Good luck! I hope your ladies start laying soon!

 

[lularat]

My girls usually lay between 8 and noon. And boy, do they love the egg song. I have 3 nesting boxes and they all usually lay in same box. Somehow, they have it worked out.

 

[SonjaS]

We have a plastic little dog house for our chickens. Up high beside a window so you can peek in if you like. Rooster ¨Motsy¨ (who got kicked out of the coop) sleeps there at night and eggs get left there during the day.

 

[Hen-rietta]

Well.. next question.. I've been told they make quite a racket when they're laying and that I'll hear them.. is this true with all of you??

My answer is pretty much the same as HeChicken. Mine make some noise between 5:15 AM and 6:30 AM sometimes more noise (and louder too) than others but they don't lay until sometime between 9 AM and noon.

 

[Jess75]

My girls will normally lay from 7am - 12pm but I have had some late afternoon surprises as well

 

[iananderson]

Ours always laid in the morning, regular as clockwork..........that is until one day they didn't. No eggs. Same the next day and the day after that. Hmm strange methinks.

The next day I hear one of the chooks singing her egg song and I thought oh oh, that's odd. Looked in the nest box, but it was still empty.

OK kids, time to scour the property (3 acres inc one of scrub......)

After an hour one of the kids was poking about in an overgrown hedge and what did she find? Yup, a whole pile of eggs!!!! Yippee, mystery solved. But that's not the fun bit........

.......the fun bit was the next day when the kids reported eggs in the nest boxes again, WTH?!?!?

It's like the chooks had a meeting (remember the movie The Chicken Run?) and said, "Darn, our dastardly plot failed, back to the nest box ladies".

And that's why I keep chickens, because you never know what they're plotting next........

 

[rmurrayslcut]

It varies by chicken, and I'll say that it's rarely really early or really late. I have noticed, and have read (and it seems to be true), that chickens lay eggs about every 25 hours. So, if I get an egg from my RIR today at noon, tomorrow it will be around 1:00. Now, rest days throw the whole thing off and it starts over.

Again, back to the individual chicken. My RIR usually is the first to lay, and my BR and Australorps usually lay mid-day or afternoon. The Ameracaunas are all over the place.

Long answer to a short question, but it depends on the individual chicken, usually not at daybreak or dusk, and pay attention to the 25 hour guideline. I swear it's fairly accurate.

Good luck, and remember that any time is a good time for an egg.

 

[Hen-rietta]

Quote:
Ha ha! My husband always tells me that "the chickens are organizing!"