This bug has been in the game for a long time. When you unload chickens, they don't save their egg lay timer. therefore every time you leave your chickenfarm area and reenter it you won't get any eggs within the first minutes, then they start constantly producing.
Comments 4
Is this still a concern in the current Minecraft version 1.7.4 / Launcher version 1.3.9 or later? If so, please update the affected versions in order to best aid Mojang ensuring bugs are still valid in the latest releases/pre-releases.
Confirmed in 13w05b. Chicken lay eggs every 5-10 minutes, so everytime the chunks are reloaded one always has to wait atleast 5 minutes before first chickens start to lay eggs again.