27 weeks and No eggs

I am having the same problem. I have 3 layers, but 9 potential layers. The first 3 I got on April 30th, 2 of those are laying (araucana and buff Orpington) and oddly enough my silver spangled hamburg who is 6 weeks younger. The rest....nothing. Our daylight is only 10 hours here in Maine right now, and I don't expect anyone else to start until spring. If they do, great, but I am not hopeful at this point. I also let them out for several hours during the day. Such a bummer, but I guess I'll be overloaded in the spring! (the ones not laying now are my Delaware, Australorps, black sex link, buckeye, cuckoo maran and silver laced Wyandotte)

 

I too am having empty nest syndrome! NO FLIPPEN EGGS! 4 Birdies, 3 black Austrolopes and 1 Americana. I got them at 6 weeks old on July 5, so they are old enough. I let them out to range around the yard and peck, scratch etc... all day long, I don't have a light, I've heard it can be bad for your chickies in the long run? is that true? What can I do, they have no stress and I'm thinking at this point these freeloaders are getting to spring before I see any eggs. Not that watching them chase my cats isn't worth the feed and "work" LOL

 

The Australorps and Delaware are dual purpose breeds and are not going to lay as well as the Red Stars and mature much slower.

 

I don't use a light, I figure they need the extra energy to keep warm- we are getting colder now. It was 22 this morning. I don't mind sacrificing the eggs for them being warm. Since its natural, I don't want to mess with that. I believe they only make a certain number of eggs during the embryonic stage (like all of us girls do) so I guess you'll extend the egg laying if you let them have a break during the winter. I can totally understand using a light though! It's just a decision I've made. I thought my sex link would be laying by now since they are suppose to lay through the winter (one of the reasons I got that breed) she is growing fast, so maybe she will surprise me one day! Let us know when more layers pull their own weight- i'd be interested in the timing. (I can't wait to find my Maran's chocolate egg!)

 

Hey there! Wanted to let you know that I got a mystery egg today!! I believe it is from my Delaware, she has been hanging out in the nesting boxes lately, but I had not seen any eggs until today!! It is darker than my buff orphingtons, and has little speckles on it. So very exciting! Maybe she will fill in for my orphingtons laying, since my dog just attacked her, and she will probably go on strike for a week or so. She is fine, just a little wound under her wing. She is in the bathroom in my other dogs kennel and is resting in the dark. The dog has on a muzzle now when outside! She is 8 months old (the dog) and will probably grow out of it, but the muzzle will do for now- no more of that, thank you!

 

I'm still egg-less. I swear they are about to be dinner! Well, not really. I am adding a light tomorrow. FINALLY my husband is home from AK and boy is his Honey-do list long! I am also going to up add some braggs to their water tomorrow, and find a feed higher in protein, I usually give them a carton of yogurt every morning with fruit or veggies of some sort from the ethinic market that marks down produce all the time. SO.... let's see if we can't get an egg this year. 31 day left!

 

The mystery egg actually belonged to my cockoo maran who was almost 30 weeks when she started laying last week. I had found a few in the nesting boxes, but over the last few days she has been singing an egg song over by our compost, and I didn't put two and two together. I went and looked today and there were 3 frozen eggs and one warm one just laid. So, if your hens are outside and singing egg songs- look around! They might be laying outside!