Chickens have never laid eggs

dbkesposito

Hatching
5 Years
Nov 27, 2014
2
0
7
I purchased four chickens in May. The sexton started laying eggs in September. The Rhode Island Red, Easter Egg-er, and Rock have never laid eggs. They appear to be happy normal chickens, ruining around the yard, eating, and socializing. They are not brooding or seem to be egg bound. Several weeks ago I kept them in the run for three days, nothing. I have researched and asked a couple of experienced chicken parents, but can not find a solution.
 
Did they tail their ages.I have got a hen that seems to be old.Never laid a egg or anything.I think you got old hens,but you can make babies by brooding them if you want.

Brooding is easy.Just be sure to add eggs under her when 1 of them are laying.But the hen may never
sit,if she is uncomfortable.You should have it dark and a lot of straw in the nest box.Mound it up around her,and be sure
to have at least 5 or 8 eggs under her.4 out of 8 eggs will probably hatch if she is not a good mother.And 2 out of 4 will probably survive.
 
I have not yet found the answer to the chicken who won't lay, there's tons of things to effect this, nutrition, stress, age, light, etc. I got back into chickens a couple years ago now and have had problems with laying ever since. I am not doing anything different than when I was a kid and dad kept chickens so I don't know what the issue is but I get less than a quarter of the eggs I should. I am starting to wonder if these hatchery chicks are just simply not good layers. I hatched a cross bred group of my own chicks from them last spring and they seemed to start laying well as pullets then simply stopped. I am doing good to get 6 or 8 eggs per day from my flock of 40 hens. Something is wrong and it will make you pull your hair out trying to figure it out.

I have added light to supplement the short winter light hours, it didn't do anything. I have changed up their feed to try higher protein levels, tried giving different amounts of scratch, etc. as supplemental feed and that didn't change anything either. They shouldn't be stressed as nothing can get at them in their coop and they refuse to go outside on the snow. I don't know I am about ready to start over with a whole new flock
 
Im not an expert but here are a few of my suggestions:
1.) Some breeds take longer than others to start to lay. If you can watch and see who goes into the nesting boxes you can get an idea for who is laying. Make sure the boxes are clean and they feel safe there.

2.) are you sure they dont have a hidden nest somewhere? Are they free range?

We found about 13 eggs in one spot when the chickens started to lay, I had coupe trained them (you keep them in the coup for 3 days so they return there and dont nest or roost outside the coup) but the cornish especially have a harder time getting into the nesting boxes.
Now it's only 1 extra spot in the barn they lay and we have been getting about 13 eggs a day. Our we got in May, also- but some havent started laying yet.

I would give them more time. Laying eggs is one of those things that is part of their physique. If a month or two has passed and still nothing, I would look at a posibility of eggs getting stopped up- but for all of them, Im not sure why that would be. Good luck!
 

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