13 Month Old Marans Never Laid An Egg

[allhisblessings]

My Blue Copper Marans is 13 months old and has never produced an egg. She is at the bottom of the pecking order of about 20. She also seems to be kind of dumb and goofy compared to the others. Is it a Marans thing? (I only have one other and she is normal.) Is any of this related? Will she EVER lay??

 

[REDNECK TRAPPER]

Probably will not ever lay so I would butcher her.

 

[Cindy in PA]

How do you know she has never laid an egg? Just curious, as I would not know which hens were laying for sure in my flock & since you rarely get an egg a day from every chicken, how would you know?

 

[allhisblessings]

How do you know she has never laid an egg?  Just curious, as I would not know which hens were laying for sure in my flock & since you rarely get an egg a day from every chicken, how would you know?

I'm so sure, I would even bet money on it. I study my chickens behaviors very carefully. I work from home so I spend many days sitting out in our chickens area with my laptop working and I watch them. not only that but I only have two Marans chickens and their eggs are unlike any of my other breeds. They are very dark brown. My Marans that lays has a peculiar habit of adding too much of the bloom coating on her egg which makes all of her eggs look purple. My blue Copper Marans, though, does not ever do any egg-laying behaviors like: the sounds that they make when they want to lay or the egg song or going up into the nest box.

 

[donrae]

If she's not a normal bird, behavior and intelligence wise, it would be quite normal for her not to lay. Survival of the fittest and all that, sounds like she's not good genetic material to pass on. Once in a while you just get a bummer bird (or any animal, for that matter). Make peace with keeping her as a non productive pet, rehome her with full disclosure, or invite her to dinner.

It's truly not a Marans thing.

 

[allhisblessings]

She laid an egg! She laid an egg!

Seriously. It was her first one and very obviously because it was small. The interesting part is that we just built a new set of nest boxes on a different wall of the coop area to add to the ones we had. She was immediately interested in them and spent two days checking them out. Then, today she laid an egg in them! It's like she waited, all these months, for us to build her a "suitable" spot to lay!

Crazy chicken!

 

[GD91]

Congratulations!

My Cochin bantam just laid her first egg today to, and it was perfect. After 9 long months of waiting I finally put a light up about a week & a half ago & immediately the pullets crests grew much larger & redder in days.

I think it would have taken ours 13 months if I hadn't added lighting, the daylight hours are just too short here, we only get 14 hours for about 3 -4 months of the year,

Hoping for more eggs tomorrow!

 

[aart]

She laid an egg! She laid an egg!

Seriously. It was her first one and very obviously because it was small. The interesting part is that we just built a new set of nest boxes on a different wall of the coop area to add to the ones we had. She was immediately interested in them and spent two days checking them out. Then, today she laid an egg in them! It's like she waited, all these months, for us to build her a "suitable" spot to lay!

Crazy chicken!

Great!! Congrats...she's a gorgeous hen!

How many nests do you have before putting up the new ones?
If she's low hen, they may have been keeping her away from nests?

 

[allhisblessings]

Congratulations!

My Cochin bantam just laid her first egg today to, and it was perfect. After 9 long months of waiting I finally put a light up about a week & a half ago & immediately the pullets crests grew much larger & redder in days.

I think it would have taken ours 13 months if I hadn't added lighting, the daylight hours are just too short here, we only get 14 hours for about 3 -4 months of the year,

Hoping for more eggs tomorrow!

Congrats to you too! Victory at figuring out the right set-up! For us, I don't think lighting is the problem since we live in sunny old Florida and the chickens have an open-air coop with skylights in the roof. ;-)

 

[allhisblessings]

Great!! Congrats...she's a gorgeous hen!

How many nests do you have before putting up the new ones?
If she's low hen, they may have been keeping her away from nests?

Thanks!

Yes, she's definitely at the bottom of the pecking order along with our one silkie and an Australorp. We had 3 nest boxes for the 12-13 currently laying hens. We just built two more, lower to the ground and on a different wall. I think I agree with you. Perhaps she felt intimidated by the other hens?