32-week old Brahma still not laying eggs

[Fallbrook Chicken Mama]

Our small flock of 8 hens is 32 weeks old today, we got them together when they were 3.5-weeks old. 7 of the 8 hens have been laying eggs since they were 23-24 weeks old, but our dark Brahma is not laying yet. There was one day when we had 8 eggs a while back, and we also have found a large, soft egg three times in the coop, which probably were laid by her.
She looks just as healthy as the other ones, eats and drinks well, interacts with us and with the other hens.
All my hens are fed with organic chicken food. In addition, they get some fermented food, lots of herbs, greens, garlic and apple cider vinegar in the water, oyster shells, etc... Since a very early incident none of my hens have been ill or pecked on ever, they are super chill. They all seem to be very healthy, and the other ones lay beautiful eggs every day.
I gave some Nutri-Drench to my Brahma 3 days in a row and we also put some in one of the drinking water buckets (someone suggested that she might need selenium for better calcium absorption).

Does anyone have an idea why this one hen is unable to lay eggs and how I could help her?

I don't know if this is at all related, but sometimes I find a relatively large poop in the coop or run - I remember reading something about this, but I don't know if it was related to the inability to lay eggs.

Thank you!

Big Foot, our dark Brahma, is the one in the foreground, happily scratching away with the rest of them.

 

[Stanpott]

How do you know she isn't laying eggs? You wouldn't reasonably expect more than 5 or 6 eggs/day if they are all laying.

 

[aart]

All my hens are fed with organic chicken food.

What is the protein and calcium percentages of this feed?
Is it in the form of mash, crumble, pellets or cracked grains?

In addition, they get some fermented food, lots of herbs, greens, garlic and apple cider vinegar in the water,

Cut all this stuff out, no need or benefit.

 

[Fallbrook Chicken Mama]

Mini pellets from Modesto Milling, organic, soy free, non-GMO 22% protein. - main food supply

Scratch and Peck Layer feed - fermented food

 

[Fallbrook Chicken Mama]

How do you know she isn't laying eggs? You wouldn't reasonably expect more than 5 or 6 eggs/day if they are all laying.

We mostly get 6-7 eggs every day. The reason I know she is not laying is because I have a very geeky husband who put a camera in the coop and I can see which hen lays and when.

 

[aart]

We mostly get 6-7 eggs every day. The reason I know she is not laying is because I have a very geeky husband who put a camera in the coop and I can see which hen lays and when.

Unless he can see into the nests this is not a fool proof technique.

Might be time for an exam:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/

 

[Fallbrook Chicken Mama]

Unless he can see into the nests this is not a fool proof technique.

Might be time for an exam:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/

Thanks, I'll look into this exam when I return home from a trip.

Also, having the camera in the coop allowed me to record the exact time of when my chickens first laid an egg, I see them clearly. I know, I am just as much of a geek as my hubby. I am a first timer chicken owner and enjoyed recording milestones.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Does anyone have an idea why this one hen is unable to lay eggs and how I could help her?

I'll assume you are in the northern hemisphere where the days are getting longer just from what you wrote. So that eliminates one possible problem.

Not every hen is an egg laying machine. I've had hens that laid messed up eggs regularly and some that laid pretty poorly. I've had some that did not lay an egg until early December on the shortest days of the year. They were three of them nine months old. The breeder I got them from said they should have been laying by five months. Each hen is different regardless of breed.

Your others are doing great. That means you are doing things right. It is not a flockwide problem, it is not something you are doing or not doing. It is an individual hen problem.

I totally agree with the vent check. That is a good way to get valuable data. It can help you isolate the problem. I'd want that information before I went to any next steps.

If the vent check shows she is not laying you can do the hardest thing possible, be patient. You will get a lot of encouragement to do something, that's just the nature of this forum. It is possible she will start laying in a few weeks and will lay great from here on out. Mine that started after nine months did fine once they started. Often late starters don't do that well but each hen is an individual.

You can keep her as a pet even if she is non-productive.

Or you can say she doesn't fit in with my plans and get rid of her. Don't feed a non-productive hen. Getting rid of here could be eating her, selling her, or giving her away.

If the vent check shows she is laying she may be hiding a nest on you. That's not all that unusual. Or maybe she is very sporadically laying one of those weird eggs even if the camera doesn't catch her. I'm not sure how that would work in your set-up.

If you think she is laying those soft eggs you can try feeding her calcium tablets. I'd treat her individually and not the entire flock if their egg shells are OK. Why take a chance on messing them up if they are not the problem.

This is a downside to owning chickens. Everything is great when everything is great. But when you have issues you may have to make hard decisions and it can get very frustrating.

Good luck!

 

[Penpal]

My Brahma hen laid quite late, later than the guidelines tell you. She started laying at 9 months old, then stopped, is now laying almost every day at 12 months old.

 

[Penpal]

Also, because of my profile, on the left of this message, you can see that I live in Michigan, so I may have snow on the ground. Please put your location in your profile.