What time of day do chickens lay eggs?

[El Padre eGGers]

When they first start laying it could be any time of the day or night....
...until they get things synced up within a month or so.

Good to know. Thanks for the info on this thread. I learned some new things today!

 

[bsshog40]

We only have 4 chickens. I never see eggs in the morning. I use to check about 12pm and still nothing. I check again about 2pm every day and thats usually when I get all my eggs.

 

[El Padre eGGers]

They must not have liked me talking about them in BYC...cause this morning around 930, I heard the egg song and had two pullets in the coop. Around 1045 I checked the nesting boxes. I was surprised with not 1 but 2 first eggs! A little small but nicely shaped with solid shells.

 

[tlcmurphy]

Beautiful eggs, congrats!

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Congratulations about the new layers and the eggs!
My hens sometimes lay in the morning before
8 a.m other times its after 4 p.m. or anywhere between. Ive never had a egg earlier than 8 a.m

 

[akitafriendakita]

I've had some lay before bed or even in the middle of the night, I don't think there's always a schedule. Like most people said, usually mid morning, but I've seen any time of day.

 

[PrettyBirdRocky]

totally random and by hen. We have one that lays at like 6am nearly every time, the. Most start laying after 10am, and then we have a couple stragglers after 4pm which are generally the newer layers lol

 

[DeAZ]

Mine lay at any time. I'm more likely to have an egg or two in the late morning or afternoon than in the early morning or evening. I have two Easter Eggers and each one lays on her own schedule I might have one in the morning and one in the afternoon, or two at the same time, or none at all. I average a dozen a week.

 

[mopalia]

Mine usually lay between 8am and 3pm.
But it's not really 'like clockwork'.

It takes about 25 hours for an egg to form, a new ova is released shortly after an egg is laid.

A new egg could be laid approximately every 25-26 hours, so an hour or so later every day until one is laid late in the day and another ova might not be released until the following day, so a day off. BUT..every hen is different and only time will tell what a particular hen/pullets schedule might be. Not every hen/pullet lays every day..some only lay a few a week.

Unrelated but funny - my son has a sleep disorder called Non-24 Sleep Wake Disorder. He lives on a 26 hour day, wakes up 2 hours later every day, and he wraps the clock every month. When I read this I thought, maybe he's actually a chicken!