Learning about what time do hens lay eggs is important for collecting eggs from the coop daily. Learning more about the exact time will save your time and also help you to get rid of the hassle. You will learn everything gradually, if you are raising chickens for a while.
Raising some chickens on your own backyard is always enjoyable and gratifying. People generally raise some chicken as pet and for egg production. Laying hens are bred for egg production. Chickens are plucky pets. They reward your tender care with a steady supply of fresh and wholesome eggs.
Naturally, hens lay eggs during the day, most frequently in the morning. Egg laying or the timing of oviposition, varies from breed to breed. Oviposition timing is also influenced by how much light exposure a hen gets.
What Time do Hens Lay Eggs
For collecting fresh eggs from the nest boxes, you should know about what time do hens lay eggs. This will also help you to keep your eggs from thief and being broken.
Making Process of An Egg
Egg laying process starts with ovulation. A hen ovulates by releasing an ovum, or egg yolk, from her ovary. It slowly move down to the hen’s long oviduct where the egg white, shell membrane and eggshell form around the yolk.
The hen lays the egg by pushing it out her cloaca, the single opening for her reproductive, urinary and intestinal tracts. Ovulation to oviposition process generally takes about 26 hours to complete.
Timing of Ovulation
Ovulate period of a hen is usually the morning. But sometimes they can ovulate as late as 3 p.m. After an hours of laying an egg, ovulation occurs again.
A hen may delay ovulating again until the following day if she lays an egg in the afternoon. She will lay her next egg after about 26 hours. This the reason of why a hen sometime skip a day of egg laying.
Timing of Laying
Within about every 28 hours, a hen can produce at most only one egg. Hens do not ovulate or lay eggs in dark. Length and timing of photoperiod also influence the egg production of a hen.
So dark and light has a great impact in the egg production. The time of the day an egg is laid is influenced by all those factors. So it may varies with each egg. But hens generally lay their eggs in the morning or during early afternoon.
Light Exposure
Light play a very important role in the egg production of a hen. Because, reproductive cycle of a hen is controlled by light exposure or photoperiod. For laying eggs regularly, a hen requires at least 14 hours of light.
If you can manage 16 hours of light exposure daily, then your hens will produce their maximum. They generally lay eggs within six hours of sunrise.
In case of indoor raising, they will lay within six hours of artificial light exposure. Your laying hens will stop laying eggs in late fall for about two months, without exposure to artificial lighting in your chicken house. They will begin laying again as the days lengthen.
Genetic Factors
Chicken breed also influence what time do hens lay eggs. Brown egg colored chicken breeds tend to lay earlier in the day. On the other hand, white and tinted egg colored chicken breeds tend to lay later in the day. Broiler hens lay eggs less frequently than the laying hen breeds. Even, they may lay their eggs before dawn.
Egg laying by a hen is conducted by the above factors. Collect eggs from the nest boxes according to the size of your flock and number of birds.
