[bloomer]

My home hatched marans and light sussex large fowl, how many weeks old should they be when they start laying?

[HesterF]

Probably about 6 months but most of mine start December/January after they were hatched - once the days start to lengthen again.

[Stereo]

Depends on the strain. If they are early 2014 hatch then 6 months or so for pure breed Maran / Sussex. A utility strain should start a lot earlier but you will get a lot of small eggs. Last year we hatched some pure breed Marans, Welsummer, Exchequer etc. in July and they didn't come into lay until March this year due to the winter.

It's all relative though. Hens have a certain amount of eggs in them regardless of breed. It just depends whether you want them all at once and then the problem of a youngish but spent hen or a good pure breed which will lay a gradually declining amount over several years.

[lord flynn]

the Scots Greys are usually late June hatched and in lay just before xmas. the araucana were the worst-45 weeks or something, good layers after that though.

[Q]

I put my light sussex in the incubator in the last few days of Jan, hatched toward the end of feb and have just started laying this week.

I had the pleasure of watching her first egg being laid - I have never seen any bird lay an egg before.   

I make that about 24 weeks.
the cockerels that hatched in the same batch have started becoming a noisy nuisance at about the same time  - coq au vin for the next few weeks I think.

[Steph Hen]

Cream leg bars, hatched start July, laid mid nov and right through cold winter.
Araucana 7months, light Sussex, 5 -7 months. I tell my customers that although pol is 16 weeks not to expect anything till at least 20+.