no eggs

[hawthorns]

been 20 days since we got sugar and spice and still no eggs

[Pumpkin Becki]

Hi Hawthorns, are they only just at POL?

Its possible they might wait until spring, sometimes young hens do this rather than start laying in winter. My boss's hybrids seem to be doing just that and they reached POL about three weeks ago. Don't worry, just make sure they are on a high quality layers mash or pellet, they'll start when they are good 'n' ready.

[hawthorns]

they are feed on organic layers pellets to which i add grit and some garlic powder. they also get a small handful of corn late afternoon

[terrier]

I've got 9 chooks at the moment and they've all gone off lay together, must be the change in the weather. I'm down to 1 egg a day

[MaureenHall]

My ex-batts are slowing down production, only 2 or 3 a day between 8 of them. The 4 POL's are now 20/21 weeks old and not producing yet, but I've seen a couple of them have a look inside the ex-batts coop at the nest boxes, so fingers crossed I might get some soon. I'm happy to wait until the days start getting longer again though

[Flummery]

I believe Point of Lay is a stage, not an age. Some breeds reach the stage at an earlier age - some much later. As lots of birds go off lay in the winter, that can affect the time they start. I wondered about this so did some on-line research. Many chicken-keepers re-stock at this time of year deliberately because the hens will be that bit older when getting into the swing of laying. This means they are less likely to have problems with the first egg which can hapen with a very young bird laying a first big egg.

Nature will take it course and if they lay later rather than sooner they'll be more mature when they do. I'd not worry and use the time getting to know them.

[Ashbylife]

We had ours a good 10 weeks before we got the first egg. POL seems to cover a wide age range - ours were only about 14 weeks old, so it helps if you know the actual age of your birds. As has been said, different breeds will start to lay at different ages, and I gather that birds born later in the year may not come into lay until the following Spring.

I remember that seemingly endless wait, so I do feel for you - but it all adds to the eventual excitement when that first egg finally arrives!

[lainey lou]

The weather's been pretty cr@ppy lately. Bad weather seems to affect the number of eggs we get from our girls, they do have lots of shelter but are too daft to use it!!
In periods of bad weather I usually give the girls some warm porridge in the late afternoon, it seems to help!