Egg laying question

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ICB42

ICB42

Chirping
Aug 22, 2015
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I have two hens (out of a flock of 8... Not on purpose of course!!!) and one is a Rhode Island Red and she is 26 weeks old as of today and she hasn't laid... I also have a Easter egged who is going to be 19 weeks on Friday, so I know it's a little early for my EE but shouldn't the red be laying by now?
 
So the two pullets are being housed with the six cockerels? Have the cockerels begun mating them and, if so, how heavily are they being mated? If there is overmating occurring that can stress your pullets and any stress impacts production which can lead to a delay of production.
Can you post a photo of your RIR showing her current appearance - this will allow us to better see the cues that can indicate how close/far from laying a bird might be. 26 weeks is not outside the normal spectrum for onset of laying - is this bird hatchery or heritage bred?
 
Kyle Spencer said:
Yes it should be they usually lay around 20 weeks but 26 it should be laying for sure.
Click to expand...
Without having answers to some very key things with regard to the keeping of the bird it is unrealistic and irresponsible to say that one should or should not be producing at any given age -- being of a certain maturity is only one factor that controls whether a bird produces or not.
 
Egg laying is very breed specific as noted above.
Also, longer daylight hours, or artificial light, can help with production.
That said, can you remove the two hens from the roo pen?
I would try that next.
 
Ol Grey Mare said:
Without having answers to some very key things with regard to the keeping of the bird it is unrealistic and irresponsible to say that one should or should not be producing at any given age -- being of a certain maturity is only one factor that controls whether a bird produces or not.
Click to expand...


I'm not quite sure what you mean. And as for my hen I haven't seen any mating and I'm out there with them quite often...I'm not sure on her age, we got her from a farm that sells chickens and bunnies and such. We have a nesting box and all but 2 of the roosters are younger then her and have only started crowing... Here are some pictures of her!


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20736 said:
Egg laying is very breed specific as noted above.
Also, longer daylight hours, or artificial light, can help with production.
That said, can you remove the two hens from the roo pen?
I would try that next.
Click to expand...


We can, move them, would that make a difference?
 
That is a nice looking girl there - and her coloration shows that she is a heritage line bird vs. the hatchery version of a "RIR" -- being a heritage bred bird the onset of production can be expected to be later as they mature more slowly. This bird does not look near to laying just yet - her comb and wattles are small and pink -- as she gets close to production they will get larger, plumper, waxier in appearance and become RED.
 
ICB42 said:
We can, move them, would that make a difference?
Click to expand...

As noted above, when housed in a situation where there are many more males than females you can often have an issue with overmating by the males - this is stressful for the females and can lead to many problems, loss of production among them....so making a change to your flock dynamics can help, yes.....but in your case the bird is simply immature and that is why she is not yet laying. For the longterm, though, I would be working on what your long-term plan is for your flock - will you increase the number of females, decrease the number of males, separate the flock, etc.
 
Ol Grey Mare said:
As noted above, when housed in a situation where there are many more males than females you can often have an issue with overmating by the males - this is stressful for the females and can lead to many problems, loss of production among them....so making a change to your flock dynamics can help, yes.....but in your case the bird is simply immature and that is why she is not yet laying.  For the longterm, though, I would be working on what your long-term plan is for your flock - will you increase the number of females, decrease the number of males, separate the flock, etc.
Click to expand...


We are!! We have more females and they are Ina. Separate coop because they aren't old enough nor big enough to be out with the other flock.. And we are either going to rehome them or make another coop for them. We are working on that, but does she look to young? When we got her we were told she was 11 weeks but I don't know if that was true because she seems so small to compared to the other red we had that was bigger by now. So I'm not sure if maybe they were off in age or what.
 

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