Why are my 9-month-old hens not laying?!

[Friendofchix]

I have a mixed flock of 9, Wyandottes, ISA Brown, Buff Orpington, Barred Rock and I free feed Scratch and Peck layer. They all began laying when they were around 5-6 months old. I have 8 hens and I get at least 6 eggs every day. They will eat what they need; I have not found that they overeat or waste any food. The feed cost is high, I understand, but right now you’re trying to be cost efficient and you’re getting nothing in return. Try free feeding dry and see what happens! You have nothing to lose at this point as your feed cost=nothing at this point.

 

[Yardmom]

You mentioned free feeding to be expensive. I'm assuming you comparing it to fermented feed. How did you come to that conclusion? Unfortunately the reason you were saving money was because your birds were not eating enough. You could continue to feed solely fermented feed, but you need to make your amount of feed fed to be based on dry weight. You will likely find you won't save much by fermenting, and it is much easier to feed free choice dry feed.

 

[chicken mama 0908]

I have a mixed flock of 9, Wyandottes, ISA Brown, Buff Orpington, Barred Rock and I free feed Scratch and Peck layer. They all began laying when they were around 5-6 months old. I have 8 hens and I get at least 6 eggs every day. They will eat what they need; I have not found that they overeat or waste any food. The feed cost is high, I understand, but right now you’re trying to be cost efficient and you’re getting nothing in return. Try free feeding dry and see what happens! You have nothing to lose at this point as your feed cost=nothing at this point.

I started offering them free feed last week. I also give them fermented feed. At first, they ate like crazy, now it has slowed down a lot. I also noticed that lately one of my hens has started checking out the nesting boxes. She has been sitting in them to.

 

[Friendofchix]

I started offering them free feed last week. I also give them fermented feed. At first, they ate like crazy, now it has slowed down a lot. I also noticed that lately one of my hens has started checking out the nesting boxes. She has been sitting in them to.

That’s great news, on your way to an omelette for sure.

 

[GardenDmpls]

My flock, about 30 6-month-olds and 10 older hens, have just started laying after the winter break, so it may just be a time of year problem. If you are worried about free feeding, get one of the feeders that open when the chickens step on the front treadle and close when they get off. A few years ago, I was going through a lot of feed. Then I went out with a flashlight one night and saw a ton of mice. I got a "Grandpa" feeder which holds almost a fifty pound bag of feed and suddenly a bag was lasting 3 times as long and no mice. Although chickens will eat mice, they won't if they are asleep (when they sleep they are zombies).

 

[chicken mama 0908]

Yesterday I got my first egg!!! Today I got four more. Thank you all so much for your help.

 

[RoyalChick]

Yesterday I got my first egg!!! Today I got four more. Thank you all so much for your help.

Yay!
So what’s the feeding plan now?

 

[chicken mama 0908]

Yay!
So what’s the feeding plan now?

I'm going to free feed and give them fermented feed. I am going to wait till all are laying to swap to layer feed. At the moment they are eating all flock high protein feed. I am also going to keep offering them oyster shells.

 

[Henway Park]

I have 20 hens, 8 Buff Orpingtons, 5 Silver Laced Sussex, 2 Isa Browns, 4 Ameraucanas, and one mystery hen. They all are 9 months old. I have lights in the coop and a few months ago, one hen started laying. Then three days later we had a cold snap and she stopped laying. I have not got an egg from any of my hens since. I am feeding them Scratch and Peck layer feed which I ferment. I rotate through 3 containers and do a batch in each; they ferment 3 days before I feed them to the chickens. I thought they were not getting enough food (at the time I was feeding them 1/4 cup per bird a day) so, last month I upped their food a little. As they still didn't lay, I upped it even more a few days ago. Now I ferment 4 cups per batch which doubles to 8 cups (just under 1/2 cup per bird). Recently I started feeding half of it to them in the morning the rest in the evening. They always eat all available food at a feeding.

You don’t need lights this time of year; let them have natural daylight cycle. I give my 12 first year hens layers pellets in free feeder and plenty of water and get an egg a day from each. You don’t need all that precision; maybe it’s stressing them out.

 

[chicken mama 0908]

You don’t need lights this time of year; let them have natural daylight cycle. I give my 12 first year hens layers pellets in free feeder and plenty of water and get an egg a day from each. You don’t need all that precision; maybe it’s stressing them out.

I turned off the lights a few days after I started this thread.