Having always grown up with chickens, I took for granted that eggs appear wherever the hens live. I never knew when chickens start laying eggs until one hen started making awful noises. Moments later, to my surprise, she laid an egg, but when do chickens start laying eggs?
Chickens can start laying eggs from 16 to 18 weeks, or at 6 months old. This greatly depends on the breed of laying hen and if they are a hybrid, egger, or meat and egg hen. Certain breeds only start laying when they are 32 weeks or older. Most chickens will lay for three to five years.
All hens are born with the eggs they will lay in their entire life cycle, which is incredible. Many eggers can lay a minimum of one egg, but some hens manage up to 2 eggs every 26-hour cycle. We investigated for you to know more about when chickens start laying eggs. Let’s take a look.
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When Do Hens Start Laying Eggs?
Chickens can start laying eggs from as early as 16-18 weeks. They usually start to lay at about 6 months. At the same time, others can take up to 28-32 weeks (8 months old).
The most common age for hens to start laying is around 20-22 weeks, although it all depends on the breed, the way it’s raised, the environment the hen lives in, and the age.
Not all hens can lay edible eggs or healthy ones. Some hens lay fairy eggs that are much smaller than an average egg. If your hen lays a fairy egg, it’s nothing to worry about. It’s simply because your hen didn’t release the yolk before the egg started producing, so the yolk couldn’t be enclosed.
How Many Eggs Does A Chicken Lay?
On average, hens can lay 5-6 eggs a week; however, this depends on the hen’s age, breed, environment, and the changes in the season. As a hen gets older, the fewer eggs it lays.
A hen can lay between 180 and 240 eggs a year. Young hens can lay more than two eggs a day because they have lots of energy. Their living conditions and diet can also make hens lay more than one egg a day. Backyard hens live in flocks for about 6-8 years. Most of the flocks will produce eggs for about 3-4 years.
The production level of the egg quality and size will decrease each year. Since a hen’s egg production slows down, most commercial laying hens will be kept for 2-3 years. It takes only 26 hours for an egg to form, meaning a hen will lay an egg later each day until, eventually, she’ll skip a day or two.
Do All Chickens Lay Eggs?
Some hens are better producers than others and will lay an egg or more a day. At the same time, other hens may only lay one every one to two days. When your hens aren’t laying eggs, this may be due to various reasons such as poor nutrition, stress, age, or molt.
While some can be fixed with simple changes and get your hens back to laying eggs as normal, some of these responses are natural.
Which Chickens Are The Best Layers?
Not all hens are equal when it comes to egg production. If you want to keep a few backyard hens, the following list provides a few choices. Most of these start to lay early and remain very productive into their 3rd to 5th year.
Here are 9 of the best laying hens to get:
1. Rhode Island Red
This breed is very gentle and produces large brown eggs. These birds are terrific layers. Just like the Leghorn, you can find the heritage and industrial breeds. With the heritage breeds, it’s a more dual-purpose breed (dual-purpose means that it’s used for both egg and meat production).
2. Leghorn
One of the best egg-laying hens is the Leghorn. It’s named after a town in Italy where the breed originated. Leghorns are very well known for their ability to convert feed into eggs efficiently, and because of that, it makes them the star of the egg industry in America. There are two different types of Leghorns.
One has been bred for “heritage” use which is more suitable for the backyard environment, and the other for industrial use. These birds aren’t the easiest for beginners.
3. Australorp
These Australian breeds lay brown eggs and are known as a top layer (a record-laying hen laid 364 eggs in just a year). They have beautiful black and iridescent green feathers and are extremely popular in Australia.
4. Plymouth Rock
When it was common for the average family to have and raise backyard chickens, Plymouth Rock was the most popular in the United States. It was a popular breed because it is very gentle and easy to work with. The Plymouth Rock lays about 4 eggs a week.
5. Orpington
These hens are easy to raise, friendly, and mature fast, and they also produce over 200 eggs each year. They were developed in Britain, and it’s well known for their buff coloring, although they do come in more unpopular colors. The Orpington is just as popular as a show chicken.
6. Red Star
Red Star hens are amazing egg producers and lay around 300 eggs a year. The Red Star is also known as Red Sex-Links because the sex of the chick can easily be determined after they hatch. They’re a hybrid breed of chickens made by cross-breeding two specific chickens.
7. Sussex
The Sussex chicken is a British breed. It’s used for multiple purposes, such as laying eggs, meat, and poultry shows. It’s not for beginners and is a rare breed. They can produce 250 eggs a year.
8. Spanish (White-Faced Black Spanish)
They aren’t native to North America. They come from Asia and are domesticated fowl. It was one of the first chickens to be imported to America, where it showed up in poultry shows in the 1850s. In addition to its name as a good egg layer, it’s a beautiful black body chicken with a white face.
9. Brahma
Brahma is a gentle but X-large breed. They weigh around 10 pounds or more and are very good egg layers. They are unique when it comes to laying. They can continue laying even in the wintertime, when many other breeds of chickens either stop laying or have a reduced laying rate.
Conclusion
Since chickens can start to lay at a very young age and continue for 5 years at least, it is crucial to take good care of your laying hens. They should enjoy a varied diet and plenty of love, so they can give you the best quality eggs.
