Ok so I've posted before that a month ago we rescued 20 chickens that were abandoned. I have 18 hens and I'm getting 7 eggs a day. We brought them home Aug 21, we built them a new coop which was completed Aug 27. I'm fairly certain on the breeds but this is my first chicken experience so I could be wrong but according to me what I have is 6 RIRs, 2 Sex Links, 6 Leghorns, 4 EE's, and 2 Roos. All 6 Leghorns are laying and I get one brown egg a day, which leads me to believe of the 8 RIR's & Sex Links one is laying, maybe two, but I never get 2 brown eggs on the same day but sometimes one is darker and one is lighter. I thought for a moment the lighter could be from an EE but the brown eggs are quite large. Anyhow supposedly the 8 girls I should get brown eggs from are 2 yrs old and all the rest were just hatched this spring.
I assume the EE's aren't laying because they're young.
The chickens free range during the day. Because we've been rebuilding our barn we've spent many days outside with the chickens all day long, they do not wander very far and I'm pretty confident of knowing where they hang out. I have searched to see if they are laying outside of the coop anywhere and haven't found any eggs. But I do have a lab who "free ranges" too, lol, and he could be eating them.
So 3 questions;
1. Could they still be stressed from the move and not laying?
2. I am going to try leaving them in the coop for awhile so they'll have to lay in there. How long should I try this? All day for several days/week (s), or just until late afternoon or evening and still let them out daily? The coop is 8x11 with 6 nesting boxes and 2 windows in it.
3. Right now I feed them layer feed only as much as they'll eat, about 7-10lbs a day, feed 2-3 times a day. Someone told me to mix scratch with the layer half and half. But I read that if they free range and can access sand/small pepples, etc. they didn't need scrach? They're free range is 14 acres (they don't go that far) which includes a barn, pasture fields, yard, and woods.
I can post pics of the coop and chickens if it helps. Thanks for your thoughts!
I assume the EE's aren't laying because they're young.
The chickens free range during the day. Because we've been rebuilding our barn we've spent many days outside with the chickens all day long, they do not wander very far and I'm pretty confident of knowing where they hang out. I have searched to see if they are laying outside of the coop anywhere and haven't found any eggs. But I do have a lab who "free ranges" too, lol, and he could be eating them.
So 3 questions;
1. Could they still be stressed from the move and not laying?
2. I am going to try leaving them in the coop for awhile so they'll have to lay in there. How long should I try this? All day for several days/week (s), or just until late afternoon or evening and still let them out daily? The coop is 8x11 with 6 nesting boxes and 2 windows in it.
3. Right now I feed them layer feed only as much as they'll eat, about 7-10lbs a day, feed 2-3 times a day. Someone told me to mix scratch with the layer half and half. But I read that if they free range and can access sand/small pepples, etc. they didn't need scrach? They're free range is 14 acres (they don't go that far) which includes a barn, pasture fields, yard, and woods.
I can post pics of the coop and chickens if it helps. Thanks for your thoughts!
