6 month old RIR hens are not laying yet?

[pony148]

I am feeding Layer Pellets and they always have fresh water and bedding. I lost one of my bannys 5 days ago to chicken lice and dusted and de-bugged the coop. Everyone seems happy and fat. Could I have too many roosters? 1 cochin roo(he's special). 1 amercauna roo, and 2 RIR roos. (I have 2 more "wild" roos, but they decided to make home outside the fence after they were out of the brooder.) My leghorn is the only one laying daily out of the other adult hens. But the 6 month old RIRs should have started by now, right? Any ideas?

 

[muddyhorse]

don't worry it will happen soon. the extreme temps we had this summer seem to have delayed a lot of birds. their combs turn bright red right before they start laying and the neck feathers get shinny. If you go to pet them do they squat ? this is a sure sign eggs are in the near future.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

u sound like me one year ago. Don't believe that 20 wk mark is typical. Those are just early developers. You will have your eggs soon. Very soon.

 

[DDRanch]

I too think that you will have eggs soon. I think some breeds take a bit longer than others. 6 roosters does sound like a lot to me depending on your hen ratio. How many hens do you have?

 

[pony148]

I have 20 hens...The roos are just so pretty...I"m getting rid of 3 of them soon, just not my cochin "RooRoo".