4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Cluckinmad]

Morning All,

 

We have had our girls 11 days now and no egg . 3 of our girls are 19 weeks old and the other 2 are 21 weeks. What is the usual age for them to start laying? They seem happy and are eating and drinking really well.

 

Thanks

[katieD]

are they crouching when you go to pick them up? good sign eggs are soon

[Space Chick]

What breeds are they? As this can also affect when they start to lay.

 

Pure Breeds tend to lay later than hybrids.

 

As an indication, one of my hybrids started laying at 22 weeks, another was over 30 weeks. With my pure breeds, my first egg was at 28 weeks, but some can take quite significantly longer even up to about 40 weeks old.

 

Crouching is an excellent sign, eggs will usually follow after a couple of weeks of crouching (although 2 of my girls have never crouched and yet lay well. They obviously didn't read the rule book )

[Cluckinmad]

I have 2 coloured hybrids i believe one is the french equivlent to the black rock and the other the french equivlent to the white star cant remember the breeds but they are not pure breeds anyway. My other 3 are Warrens they dont seem to be crouching when you go to pick them up they just stand there.

 

Yesterday all the girls were free range in the garden but Beryl decided to retire to the nesting boxes I got really excited afer a few hours she came out to join the others I ran down the garden to discover she had left me nothing at all

 

I think im just far too excited about getting my first egg

[Space Chick]

It is very exciting waiting for the first egg, and then you get the excitement and egg dance when you do get one

 

I still marvel at my girls, its like several miracles in the nest box every day. The only thing is, it makes me very angry when I see egg wastage on TV. On Richard Hammonds engineering programme last week, they wasted hundreds of eggs and I began shouting at the TV

[sjp]

Big red was 23 weeks cyclone was 26 weeks assuming that they were the age is was told that was also in the spring as it October now it might take longer you might even have to wait till march as the days get longer

I'm waitng for My 3 bars to start. they'll be 26 weeks next week but I'm also half expecting to wait till March

[coco]

I'v had my girls 2 months now. They are all supposedly about 28 weeks. My sussex cross is the only one laying at the moment, one of my silkie crosses layes for 2 weeks and has now stopped compeletely, I'm putting it down to the time of year and the fact that she has only just started laying. My other Silkie cross is showing no signs of laying at all, she hasn't even started to crouch so I'm not holding out much hope for eggs of her this year. Well I'm off to Tescos now to buy some eggs

[Seagazer]

One of my girls was well over 40 weeks before she started laying so I shouldn't worry too much.

[the_martian]

We're in a similar position - have had 4 Bevan Goldlines (aka Gingernut Rangers) for 3 weeks, so they should be about 20 weeks by now. I'm glad to know its not just us - I thought we were doing something wrong. I guess as we're new to this we thought point-of-lay meant that eggs were imminent. Oh well. I showed the girls my empty egg-cup the other day so they knew I was waiting eggspectantly , but it hasn't helped and the thought of waiting 40 weeks - my wife will have shown them the casserole by then (joke - I think)

[Seagazer]

As you can see from my signature one of my girls laid within about 4 weeks of getting them, then the next was about 4 weeks after that and then slow coach Ginger just laid when she wanted to!

 

I only got one egg from them yesterday so I had to have stern words with them - then my neighbour caught me talking to them

[Egluntyne]

The shortening days will have an impact on their coming into lay. You may have to wait a little longer. Generally I have found that they come into lay at around 23/24 weeks.

[Cluckinmad]

Thank you everyone for your advice. Still no egg but im not as worried now. I also thought if you brought them at point of lay they would be laying immediately obviously not

 

I will just keep gazing into the nesting boxes hoping for an egg evry morning.

 

Thanks again everyone

[dippy bird]

I've had my new girls for 5 weeks now and not a sausage!! (although I would be concerned if they did lay a sausage! ), what do first eggs look like? I was on my holibobs when my other girls started to lay so I didn't get to see their first eggs as my SS ate them!

[Cluckinmad]

To be honest I haven't actually seen a first egg just yet as these are my first ladies and they havent yet graced me with an egg or a sausage come to think of it

 

As soon as I know i will let you know i will be that excited i think i will be running round to the neighbours to show them the first egg aswell

[the_martian]

Yippee - we have eggs . 5 weeks after the chooks arrived, which means they are about 21 weeks old now. We've had one egg each of the last two days, but I dont know which girl has started laying. How can I tell? I was trying to see which one was looking smug, but they are all being very coy.

[Seagazer]

I used to be able to tell as my laid first and hers were a darkish brown, then Flo my started laying and hers were a beige kind of colour. Then Ginger, also a started laying but hers were a different shape to my but the same colour.

 

I have no idea who is laying at the moment as generally its only 2 eggs and I've completely forgotten which shape went with which chicken.

 

You could keep a watch on the nesting box but you would have to be out there some time. Plus Ginger used to accompany the others up when they laid there eggs to keep them company so it doesn't always help.

[Cluckinmad]

Im not really sure how you tell to be honest I believe one of the tell tale signs is how big and red there comb is. If the comb is small and pale almost a pinky color they are not in lay???

 

My Beryl has a beautiful huge bright red comb at the minute and im sure she is soon going to lay as my othe 4 girls have small very pale combs fingers,toes,arms, and legs crossed i will get an egg very soon