Question for chicken owners ?

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BBH

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How many eggs would you expect to get daily from 8 chickens ? Just that a friend has bought his first ever chickens and is only getting an egg a day after 2 months of having them.

They are well looked after, fed on layers pellets and scraps and have plenty of space to roam but he's starting to think he may have an egg thief ( a man was caught recently living rough in the woods )

Is an egg a day normal ? He reckons he may have better luck going to Tesco's than waiting for his lot to produce.
 
It depends, What age are they?? It Can take longer than 2 months for them to settle.
Some breeds also stop laying all together during the winter months.
There's also the moult they stop laying during this.

I currently have 10 Hens 6 of which are layers 2 are POL & the other 2 are 11 weeks old.
Out of my 6 layers only 3 are laying atm. I normally get an egg every other day from most of my hens. A couple will lay daily.

He will get eggs he's just got to be patient.
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How old are the chickens? If they're rescued battery hens some may be past laying every day, but should be laying a bit more regularly than one per day.
If they're point of lay pullets they may not all have started laying yet.

I would have thought that your friend should been getting more eggs, even up to 8 per day. Could he keep an eye on them & try & find out which ones are laying?
 
depnds on age, they only lay after 20 weeks and may stop after 2 or 3 years I think. Also some breeds will lay less especially coming into winter. If they are not happy or dont have suitable nests they wont lay either.

I have 7 chickens including 2 cockerals, 1 rather old battery hen who I dont actually think lays anything and 1 who is about 21 weeks so actually only 3 proper layers at the moment and we will get 2 - 3 a day sometimes 1 especially during winter.

Your friends chooks might actually be eating them once laid - my ex battery hens did this - very annoying, sometimes you can see the evidence sometims you cant!
 
Thankyou everyone, his hens are bought from two different breeders and are not battery rescue's. I know they are young
( months as opposed to years ) and three are black speckledy and 6 are brown / red.
 
It all depends on the age of your chickens, the breed, the weather, red mite, lice worms etc. Also has he got rats in the run or magpies both of which will steal the eggs from the nesting box. Does he only feed layers before 2pm and scraps after that. feeding scraps in the morning will stop laying as they will fill up on those and not the layers an therefore not get in the necessary nutrients to lay. So many variables - but if all things are as they should be then he should expect about 4 - 8 a day.
 
As other have said, there are lots of reasons for not many eggs, one major reason, is that the days are getting shorter and chickens tend to go slow in the winter. If he wants to maximise his egg laying opportunities, he needs to give them some artificial lights in the winter.

I had some bantams that simply stopped laying in the winter. My "egg machines", hybrid hens slowed a little in the winter to maybe an egg every other day, but in the summer, they laid pretty much an egg a day.
 
Hi, I've got 10 bantams that could lay and on average we get about 4 or 5 a day.

If you want it i've got a September issue of Country Smallholding that you could have. (they sent me 2
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) It's all about poultry and getting started with them, so it might be quite useful. If you PM me your address i can send it to you.
 
they might have a secret stash of them somewhere, i found a stash of 17 from my girls after a lean 2 weeks! fwiw i have 16 hens and get roughly 5-9 per day, some are ex-batts, they are all about 2-3 yrs old now.
has he made a few really nice covered cosy places for them to lay? and stuck a plastic egg in there to give them the idea? these really help..
 
If they were bought as POL (16-17wks) they would be coming into lay (21-24wks) as the day length is decreasing so they are effectively switching off. If you put a light in their house on a timer set to about 5 am atm (they need 17hrs of daylight to eat enough to lay) as the daylength shortens move the timer earlier, but let them go to bed at the natural time. Our light comes on at 1 am mid winter. Try not to feed them too many scraps as they won't have enough protein in them and will stop them eating the layers food. Worm them twice a year too.
 
Have always found our lay well in their first year - even over winter - we have 13 girls and get 11 or 12 eggs a day

Would agree if they are free ranging to check everywhere - under headges etc - one of ours even laid on the gravel drive under the horsebox
 
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