24 week hens still not laying?!

[aart]

Problem with putting roosts too high is when they fly/jump down they need room to land without crashing into something.
Putting roosts over nests(without a poop board) leads to a lot of poop ending up on nests or on the walking path to the nests.

You (and they) could live with what you have now......think about it for while before modifying.
What are your long term plans?
What is your climate/location?Good to put that in your profile.

How many birds total do you have now?
What are your plans for integrating the two groups?
How big is that run?

 

[coastingangel]

Hi I wouldn't worry just yet. Don't know much about the other breeds but my orpingtions didn't start laying until they were closer to 6 months old.

 

[bglass]

Our long term plans are to create a sustainable farm. We built our house and finished in January. Literally lived in a camper with 4 kids and a 100lb german shepherd for 8 months on-site and built much of it with our own hands. We started chickens in April because they seemed "easiest" LOL. Ignorance at its best. We bought the 10 acres to build our home on. We plan on a full acre garden, 2ish goats, 2ish pigs, maybe a couple turkeys, and a dairy cow at some (far away) point. Right now it's just the chickens. We need to square them away before we do anything else.
We live in Arkansas so we have maybe a month of weather below 35 degrees, mostly hot and humid. Since we just bought the land and built the house, nearly all of our land is forest. Plans are to clear that gradually. We live on top of our own private mountain and have a well for our water supply.
The run isn't actually enclosed at all, one wall isn't finished so they have access to wherever they please. Plans for that are to make it a "mini run" for the growing babies to get outside time while they're little before they free range with the big kids. We plan to add another chicken door to that run for them and a third chicken door for the "big kids" which leads to the big world. The future for that space is for broody hens raising their own babies; hopefully no more hatcheries for us. The mini run will also serve as a safe place for them to have outside time if we need to go away for a day or two. It's still unfinished at this time.
We currently have 18 hens and 1 rooster, then 16 beautifully healthy pullets approx 6 weeks old. We want to breed our own chickens eventually. This last chick batch is our 3rd from the hatchery, and by far our most successful-we haven't lost a single one yet!

 

[bglass]

Also to add, they used to roost in the rafters and such. We had to clip their wings a few weeks ago so they couldn't anymore, when we moved the babies from the brooder into the coop. Otherwise they would just fly from "their" area into the "baby" area.