No eggs yet

[RosieR]

Hi everyone,
My cots have yet to lay anything.
I have 10 all together in 30sq/ft aviary. They are about 9 weeks old but only 3 are females.
I plan to process 6 males next week (I was trying to wait till they were a decent size). The aggression is minimal but maybe it’s the excess boys that are causing the delay on eggs?
They’ve got over 12h of sun. The highest protein feed I could get is 24%, but they are outdoors and likely getting some bugs.
Thoughts?

 

[mdees88]

I give mine artificial light for 16 hours a day and they started laying at 6 weeks and 3 days and 90% are laying now (7.5 weeks). I bought some birds that were 5 weeks old and at 9 weeks they still had not laid. I upped the protein from 24% to 30% at 6 weeks and 2 days later they started laying. Not sure if that had anything to do with it or not. Could have just been them settling down from the move.

How long since you bought them/moved them into the aviary. It can take up to 4 weeks after they are "handled" before they will lay. They get stressed out during a move.

 

[RosieR]

I give mine artificial light for 16 hours a day and they started laying at 6 weeks and 3 days and 90% are laying now (7.5 weeks). I did up my protein from 24% to 30% at 6 weeks and 2 days later they started laying. Not sure if that had anything to do with it or not.

How long since you bought them/moved them into the aviary. It can take up to 4 weeks after they are "handled" before they will lay. They get stressed out during a move.

They’ve been out there about a month now. I’ve had them since they were 2 weeks old.
Hubby keeps making jokes about the girls not pulling their weight lol. We’re not in a huge rush or anything, but I’m new and just making sure I’m not missing something.

 

[mdees88]

I have no experiences with aviary or using natural light so I'm not sure if they will consistently lay with 12 hours of light or not. I raise mine in wire cages off of the ground. If they do not lay in the next week or so I would suspect lighting could be the issue... Maybe some other aviary people will chime in.

 

[RosieR]

I have no experiences with aviary or using natural light so I'm not sure if they will consistently lay with 12 hours of light or not. I raise mine in wire cages off of the ground. If they do not lay in the next week or so I would suspect lighting could be the issue... Maybe some other aviary people will chime in.

We are getting longer days. I am considering putting lighting in this fall, but I was hoping the spring summer sunlight would be sufficient.
I wonder if they are being over bred and that they are stressed from all the male attention?
In any case I’ll be harvesting next week, once I grow the balls to do it lol.
I’ve got some 4 week olds almost ready to go outside. I imagine that will just stress the girls out more

 

[mdees88]

We are getting longer days. I am considering putting lighting in this fall, but I was hoping the spring summer sunlight would be sufficient.
I wonder if they are being over bred and that they are stressed from all the male attention?
In any case I’ll be harvesting next week, once I grow the balls to do it lol.
I’ve got some 4 week olds almost ready to go outside. I imagine that will just stress the girls out more

Yes, 7 males to 3 females would surely put some stress on the hens. I would definitely cull. The first one is not the easiest but it is the circle of life. Once you do a few it really is not so bad.

 

[RosieR]

Yes, 7 males to 3 females would surely put some stress on the hens. I would definitely cull. The first one is not the easiest but it is the circle of life. Once you do a few it really is not so bad.

I already had to cull a newly hatched chick and it was so sad. Far too cute to die, but it had a broken leg or something and was seal crawling around the brooder. I’m hoping an adult bird will be easier for me. But I definitely need to fix my ratios... I seem to be great at getting Roos.... 3 of 4 of the month olds are boys as well.
Maybe I’ll build a grow out pen for my extra Roos so they don’t bother my girls.

 

[mdees88]

I built a couple separate cages just for my extra males. I separate my males from my hens at 3 weeks of age and keep them housed together until around 6 weeks when I cull. I have been keeping 15-20 males in 10 sq ft and haven't had any issues with fighting surprisingly. I keep my hens around 1.5 sq ft per bird...

 

[RosieR]

I built a couple separate cages just for my extra males. I separate my males from my hens at 3 weeks of age and keep them housed together until around 6 weeks when I cull. I have been keeping 15-20 males in 10 sq ft and haven't had any issues with fighting surprisingly. I keep my hens around 1.5 sq ft per bird...

I might try something similar. Keep my breeders in their aviary, and build cages for the males.
Either that or cull them as they come out of the brooder set up at 6 weeks. Not as much meat but less stress.

 

[Erkenstein]

Like mdees88, I use a grow-out pen for the males and separate the extras at three weeks old, when I can tell who's who. I try to keep the biggest, healthiest males to use as breeders.

24% protein should be fine for laying, so I would tend to think it's the light that is the issue. Most people say at least 14 hours is the right amount of light; I go with 16 hours myself. The consensus is that the light should be bright enough to read with, but I use LED string lights (like Christmas lights) and they aren't super bright but they work fine and are easy to set up. Even leaving on a porch light if it's close enough to the run might be enough to do the trick.