Laying Chickens: How Often Do Chickens Lay An Egg?
Did you know many people question how long are their chickens going to be laying eggs and other egg questions?
Yes, laying chickens seem to be on their mind and this question really needs to be answered.
So let’s get to the bottom of it…
Get it?
The Big Lying Chickens Answer
Most hens are going lay for about 3 to 5 years.
During that time they will take a break and go on holiday.
Most probably to the Bahamas or something…
About once a year to moult.
This will allow the reproductive tract chance to rest.
However, after that 5-year period, their egg production is going to continue to decline and may stop altogether shortly after that.
You can’t tell if an egg is fertilized by looking at first off in order to have fertile eggs.
You have to have a rooster in your flock of course…
So if you don’t have a rooster you’re not going to have any fertile eggs are you.
If you do have a rooster though there are changes, most probably (have you seen just how randy these roosters can be sometimes) are, you could have fertile eggs.
There is no real way to tell that they’re fertile unless you incubate the egg and let an embryo develop.
If you take those eggs, and you put them right into the refrigerator and keep them cold the embryo is never going to develop.
And you can eat those eggs just like you would anything else, without ever knowing that it was fertilized rest assured.
Chickens Eating Eggs
So if your laying chickens start eating your eggs this is a common problem.
And it’s a difficult problem to break, unfortunately.
Especially if an egg gets broken for some reason in your henhouse, and if they find it, they are probably going to eat it.
I know this personally, and at the time, I am hoping that they do not get the taste for it and start breaking their own eggs.
But this is one thing that you can do, grit is not going to help this problem the biggest thing you can do here is to find out which of your hens is the culprit.
Which one of these chickens is actually breaking the eggs.
You want to find out who that is and separate her from the group because this is a learned behaviour if you did not know.
You know…
Monkey see monkey do.
And the other chickens see her doing this they’re going to start pecking at them, I mean the eggs for your table.
And you are going to have all of your hens pecking at the eggs.
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And then you’re never going to have any eggs for yourself if you can’t identify which hen it is
And it always seems to be the hens…
There are some steps that you can take as well…
There are stores that you can buy ceramic or wooden eggs from, that you can use to put in the nest.
I have done this just because these false eggs also promote egg-laying, or at least encourage your hens to lay in their nest boxes, and not all over your chicken run.
When the culprit hens pick up these plastic eggs they can’t break them.
So they learn to stop eating them and pecking at them.
You can also use, well I’ve heard of people using golf balls..
So if you are a golfer…
One of the more effective ones that I’ve heard of is someone taking a regular egg.
Poking two holes on either end of the egg blowing out the contents and then refilling that egg with mustard and then they put that egg back in the hen house.
So when the bird pecks at the egg, she’s going to get a mouthful of mustard!
I am sure that is something that she is going to like.
If she does, I would be very surprised.
I do not think that is really going to happen somehow, do you?
So these are some ways to do beat an egg-laying chicken at her own game.
You just need to make sure that you’re persistent.
Decreased Egg Production
So let’s say that your birds have been laying eggs for about six months, and now you are noticing some decrease in their egg production.
There could be several things going on here I’m going to try and touch on as many of those as I can.
First off I’m going to ask you what is the day length that your hens are being exposed to?
Laying chickens are going to require 16 hours of light in order to continue to lay eggs.
It’s a natural progression as the day length gets longer birds to stay in production and when the day length starts to shorten as we get towards autumn in winter.
That’s the sign to those birds that it’s time to stop producing eggs because they can’t raise baby chicks during the middle of the winter.
It’s hard to keep themselves fed when they have to forage through maybe four feet of snow for instance…
So what you can do to combat this natural basic instinct is to provide your hens with some supplemental lighting.
You can use a 25-watt bulb or an equivalent set it on a timer to add more light in the morning and the evening.
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So that they will continue to lay eggs even during the Autumn and wintertime.
Another issue that might be is how much how many chicken treats are you giving to your birds.
Are you providing too many treats or snacks to your hens?
They are not going to be eating their regular laying hen food if you’re feeding them too many treats you know…
It’s like having lollies, would you eat the plate with the chicken feed or the plate with the goodies if you were a chicken?
I thought so…
Same with the chickens, there not silly when it comes to their stomach and what pleases them.
In fact, they may not be getting the nutrition they need to support their egg production.
So that could be a cause of why they’re going out of egg production.
As well is there an illness going through your flock have you looked closely at birds to see if there are any disease signs of disease going on.
Look for lice, mites any illness around the eyes things of that nature.
If you see anything that makes you believe that they all might be quite sick it’s time to seek the advice of a veterinarian.
And then the last thing that could be it is maybe you have a predator in the area that’s harassing those birds.
And is disrupting their egg cycle.
So that might be something else that you need to check out for you.
Laying chickens are not always going to be popping out eggs for you all year round.
That’s just a fact for many reasons, and they do moult as well.
This is the time that their energy is put into growing a new set of feathers, not in laying eggs.
And yes, if your laying chickens are not laying, then you might just have to go, and buy some eggs from a store.
But remember to buy barn or free-range eggs, nearly every time I see people at the store pick up cage eggs and put them in their shopping trolly.
I get mad when I think that these people do not even think about how these cage eggs came to be.
But when your laying chickens are in the full egg-laying mode, we’re all happy, two for one.
A pet as a chicken and also egg producer for you as well.