When did your chickens start to lay eggs?

[underneaththeash]

We bought some (utterly adorable) point of lay hens 2 weeks ago and so far no eggs. Should we be expecting some yet or do they just need more time to bed in?

They're gold stars BTW.

How old are they? Most hybrids lay from about 18 weeks onwards, and are sold from 14-18 weeks as "point of lay". I know that there has been huge increased demand for hens this year so they are selling them younger to keep up with demand.

Goldstars are lovely quiet birds, very friendly and sweet natured, like being picked up and held. But they do have a tendency towards internal egg laying, which is as unpleasant as it sounds and incurable so watch out if they go off lay once they have started. And their sweet nature means they get bullied by bigger more strident breeds like white stars. Perfect for a home flock thou, enjoy :)

Thanks, I'm not entirely sure how old they are. They have got bigger since we picked them up, so maybe not fully mature.
They do like chicken cuddles though. We were warned that they are prone to internal laying and don't live that long.

Are their wattles and combs fully red? If not, they aren’t ready yet. That’s a sign of sexual maturity.

18 weeks is in the early side, often it can take up to 22. Don’t worry, it will happen eventually. They may lay a dummy egg (tiny, no yolk) or take a while to reach regular laying. Think of them like yourself as a teenager - periods took a while to settle in, probably. Your hens are the same.

Gold Star is one of many names for them - Warren, ISA Brown, Gingernut Ranger... they’re all basically the same. Extremely docile, very consistent layers, easy to train/make hand-tame. Very, very greedy!
They can happily live to about 5 in my experience, although egg production drops off a lot as they get older.

Congratulations on your new girls, I am sure you’ll have great fun. Just remember they are pets with benefits rather than laying machines and you’ll get on with them much better.

I got POL and we were waiting for around a month for our first egg. Can’t remember how many weeks exactly.

They are sometime double yolkers at the start too

Thank you. I will be more patient!

Just to update, we had our first eggs about 3 days ago (tiny ones!) and today's were larger.