5-6 month old chickens won't lay

[dextersflock123]

about 1 month and a half ago now, we purchased our first chickens ever, 2 white leg-horns. we waited about 2 weeks until we got our first eggs which only one of the chickens was laying. She laid about 5 eggs, 1 a day for 5 days and then stopped as soon as we introduced 2 new Isa browns to the flock. Unfortunately about a week or 2 after that 1 of the White leg-horns passed away so we had just 3 chickens left. Then we introduced 5 little 10 week old chickens to the flock. So now we have 8 chickens and I'm aware that we won't see any eggs from the young ones for quite some time. But I haven't seen a single egg from the older ones for a whole month. and 2 of the older ones haven't laid any at all. I'm wondering if they have been put off by the young ones moving in? or the death of the leg-horn chicken. I feed them a mixture of Grains and Layers pellets. As well as fruit and Veg scraps. I keep there cubby house clean and they have several nesting boxes to choose from. So I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong? or is there any way I can encourage them to start laying. or should I just be patient.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Change is often really stressful for chickens, even small changes that may seem silly. Adding two sets of new birds and the death of the 1 leghorn could throw them off a bit and so many changes in a row may compound it. I would give them a few weeks of very consistent calm living and see if you start getting eggs before you worry too much,

Is it winter where you are? If days are short and there is no light in the coop that could also effect laying.

Be careful feeding layer to 10 week olds. That much calcium can have long term health effects on young birds. I add a bowl of oyster shell and feed everyone a grower or flock raiser until all of your birds are laying.

 

[dextersflock123]

Okay thanks so much for the help! No it's actually mid-summer where I am, gets light at around 6 am and dark at around 9pm. I will defintely take your advice about that food as I don't want any of them to get sick.