I am still here, I just have not found myself getting around to writing a post. With that said, today the hens have laid there first dozen of pullet eggs!! The first egg was laid last Thursday and they have been giving about two eggs a day. Yesterday they turned 18 weeks old, so the others could start to lay in the next couple weeks, except for two of them because they are a week younger than the rest.
They have laid their eggs any where from 10:00 a.m. to around 4:00 p.m. in the after noon, I think that they will start to all lay in the morning once they get in schedule and laying regularly. One question I had though was if the hens needed to be shut off from there nesting boxes during the night time, because most of the nesting boxes for sale have that feature and I wondered if it was that serious of an issue?
Picture will come soon!!
2 comments:
David, that shouldn't be an issue. If a hen is going to lay an egg she will lay it. I have a couple of hens that use the nest box, but will occasionally lay one or two on the ground. Of course, there's more of a chance of the egg getting broken from getting stepped on. That could lead to them eating the eggs. You don't want that cause they could get in the habit of it. But it's not likely they will be laying at night. My hens usually lay late morning to early afternoon regularly, too. But the nest boxes (I built them from plywood) are right there. Sometimes a few of them will even roost in them at night.
~Randy
Congrats on your first eggs, so exciting to get those. Ours have been laying since last February (late chicks). I still smile when finding eggs. Ours lay between early morning and as late as 5pm.
Our hens will usually stand in rain too. Maybe they are not smart enough to go inside, I dunno.
Only problem with not closing up nest boxes at night is they poo there and hens will lay eggs on the poo. Yuck. I rush out early to check and clean nests cuz ours are open boxes.
I love my hens, they are really pets with the added bonus of eggs.
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