4 Hens are not laying any suggestions?

[Piratetrader]

Hi All,

I am new to owning chinckens and did so because we wanted the kids to enjoy raising them. However, it has been an exhausting journey especially when we found out the first seven chicks we bought had five roosters in the mix. And of course this was after spending nearly 41/2 months raising them.

We gave away all the roosters ( our favorite died due to a sickness that he did not overcome even with anitbiotics) and bought a couple more hens that were 18 weeks old.

The two hens from the original batch we kept were 18 weeks old when we integrated them. Now they are all 27 weeks old and none of them are producing eggs. Not one.

The chicken breeder told us we should see eggs anywhere from 22-26 weeks of age. Maybe I should be putting something in their food to help (like calcium) to aid with formation of the eggs? I should mention that early on one of the chickens got sick and then all of them came down with the same coughing and mucus symptoms. They were treated with antibiotics and later when it came back dengard. All are healthy now.

I mean aren't they all at the high end of the time frame to be laying? I could see maybe one or two chickens but all of them? I saw one post that said it took 32 weeks to see any eggs from their chickens. Is this common?

They all free range all day long from about 9am until its dark ( I live in Florida so it doesn't get dark until about 8:30pm here) which by then they go back into the chicken house. Sometimes they come back in on their own in the middle of the day to eat the feed and drink water but then they go back out. They usually eat most of the feed in the mornings before we open the chicken house then pick at the ground all day while free ranging. maybe Im not feeding them enough? Cause when I look at the feed in the night it's all gone or mostly gone.

Could they be laying outside of the house somewhere on my property? I have 6 wooded acreas and they mainly stay close to the house which is heavily landscaped and about 1.5 acreas of grass and nice trees they lay under.

I have:
Two Red sex linked
One Silver Wydonette
One little silkie
one easter egger (but that's the rooster)

Please post to let me know what I can realistically expect on time frames for seeing eggs.

Thank you,
Cindy

 

[ChickenTeen13]

This was my first year raising chickens too, but my hens (A road island red, a buff orpington, and an easter egger) started laying at different times. The easter egger was the last one, about 2 weeks after the others. I wouldn't be worried. You might want to search around your yard to make sure they are not laying under a bush somewhere. You can try to put a few golf balls or plastic eggs in the nest boxes to encourage them to lay there. Good Luck!

 

[Fred's Hens]

Got to believe they are laying. If they are released to free range early in the day, everyday, then the odds are really good that they are laying offsite.

There is a very simple diagnostic tool used to find out for sure. Keep them locked in their coop and run for a week. Gotta believe you'll see some eggs, somewhere. On the floor, some in the nests, some off the roost perhaps, but surely some of them are indeed laying. It is virtually impossible to keep a 22 week old Red Sex Link from laying unless there is something seriously wrong with her health.