Breeding v.s. egg-laying?

[Deleted]

This morning when I was out enjoying the sunrise with the chickens, I noticed that Zeus (formerly known as Big Mean Chicken) has started breeding some of the hens. What a racket! The hens are not happy, but they're submitting.

Now these guys were hatched on April 3rd, which makes them all just over 4 months old. I was under the impression that the hens won't start laying until they're 5 to 6 months old (6 months more likely for the heavy Brahma breed). So is this normal for the roosters to start doing their thing this early, or will this cause the hens to start laying before they normally would? I've not come across any information regarding this in my chicken book, and I honestly don't know how to Google the information I want. I was hoping somebody here could tell me whether this is the normal progression of events. Don't tell me I have to separate them for a while, 'cause I'm flat out of room. The only available space I would have to put the roos is where the keets are now, and I don't really want to keep them confined anyway if I don't have to.

Also, I'd like to be able to start letting them out to free range, and that might help, but the cats are still giving them hungry looks, and the cats can take down a full grown cottontail, so I'm not sure my chickens are large enough yet to intimidate the cats. I'm assuming that they still have a little growing to do, being only 4 months old (the chickens, I mean)?

~Lannie

[thrillbilly]

depends on the breeds. I have had some start crowing at three to four months and topping hens as well. then again I hve another breed thats slow maturing that wont crow or start topping hens til they are around 9-10 months old.

Let nature take its course. If he is old enough to climb on and she lets him then what does it hurt? Only if you dont want eggs to hatch and if so you can still eat the eggs instead of hatching them.

[Deleted]

I thought the same thing, TB, but I thought I'd ask. My girls shouldn't start laying for another couple of months, but you never know. I won't be trying to hatch out any eggs until I figure out if these are going to give me enough eggs for our use (and one neighbor who wants eggs also). I have 10 hens, so I should have plenty.

I don't feed commercial feed, so once they start laying, I'll probably be boiling and mashing some of their eggs and giving them back to them, along with the ground shells. I already have a quantity of shell put aside from the shells I've been saving since we got the chicks. Of course, these shells are from my OTHER neighbor who has a barnful of Barred Rocks. That neighbor and the other one who wants some of my eggs don't seem to get along with each other for some reason, so the one neighbor is waiting for my hens to start laying and in the meantime buys eggs from the store. I think the disagreement is just because one's Republican and the other's Democrat. How juvenile, in my opinion, to let that get in the way of being good neighbors and helping each other out. Oh, well, at least this way I have one for-sure egg customer.

~Lannie

[Deleted]

You know, I just realized today that my chickens are now 18 weeks old. Everything I've read says 18 to 20 weeks. Because they're Brahmas, I've heard they won't start laying as soon as some breeds, but still, they COULD start laying any time now, right?

I guess I'll have to do an egg search in the mornings from now on, just in case. Of course, you guys will all hear about it when I find the first one!

Anybody know approximately when Brahmas start laying?

~Lannie

[bergere]

My Brahama's would start laying at 25 weeks. Not sure why...maybe they were slow learners.
But they were some of the best mice eaters I had out of all the chicken breeds over the years.