Chicken Egg Laying Frequency

I touched upon chicken egg laying previously but I wanted to return to the subject. Here at chicken nesting boxes I like to keep the information simple and to the point. I wanted to offer up a little information on how to get the most from your hens.

Given the right conditions and suitable chicken nesting boxes you should get an egg a day from your chickens. This will not be all year round but for a considerable part of the year you should be getting a regular supply of eggs.

If you get chickens at point of lay then within a few weeks to a month they will begin to lay their eggs. Chickens are born with the possibility to lay a finite amount of eggs. Once all those have been layed that is it, no more. They lay with the most frequency for the first two years and after that the level of egg laying begins to drop severely. It is worth getting the most from your chicken for the first two years.

Even if they have many years left to live and many eggs left to lay they will do it so irregularly after the first few years that it is worth getting as many eggs as you can as soon as you can.

Here is what will help get an egg every day for the first few years.

Firstly, if you have not yet built or bought a chicken coop then I would save yourself a lot of time and money and get some detailed instructions. This book has all the information you could ever need to build a chicken house for minimal cost. It has loads of designs as well as telling you how to make chicken nesting boxes for free. It is THE chicken coop bible.
After you have a good quality chicken coop you also want some great nesting boxes. There is enough information on this site and in the book to be able to make them for little to no money.

Bedding is important. Keep them comfortable and your chickens will reward you with an egg. As well as all the above points you should consider the light levels.

As the days get shorter chickens lay less eggs. If you want an egg a day all year round then you need to create some artificial light. You just need a lightbulb in the chicken coop to accomplish this. Connect it to a car battery if you do not have a handy power source. This will fool the hens in to thinking it is still a time of year when they should be laying eggs.

This is a simple but very effective way of getting an egg every single day of the year. Don't forget to have some suitably placed chicken nesting boxes so it is easy to collect the eggs.