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janiedoe

janiedoe

Wrangler
Premium Feather Member
7 Years
May 7, 2017
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East Texas
Hello everyone. I am new to chickens, and to be honest this is my hubby's hobby. I have to admit that they are entertaining ( the chickens, not husbands). We bought 6 full grown hens 3 weeks ago from a local man. The trip home was tramatic. One hen (a beautiful speckled sussex) pulled feathers from another. We found her a new home after a few days as she was very aggressive with the other hens and despite seperating her for a few days, she continuted to attack her peers. Then Dotty, the one with the missing feathers got sick. We gave her antibiotics for several days and she is doing great now. They are a very mixed flock. A Buff Orpington, a Silver laced Wyandotte, an Ameraucana, a Langshan, and a Plymouth Rock. My question...we have had only one egg. Our chickens are bright eyed, have beautiful feathers, and moist vents. We are feeding high quality laying pellets. We have fake eggs in the nesting boxes. They are suposed to be 10 months old to one year. What is the problem?
 
janiedoe said:
Hello everyone. I am new to chickens, and to be honest this is my hubby's hobby. I have to admit that they are entertaining ( the chickens, not husbands). We bought 6 full grown hens 3 weeks ago from a local man. The trip home was tramatic. One hen (a beautiful speckled sussex) pulled feathers from another. We found her a new home after a few days as she was very aggressive with the other hens and despite seperating her for a few days, she continuted to attack her peers. Then Dotty, the one with the missing feathers got sick. We gave her antibiotics for several days and she is doing great now. They are a very mixed flock. A Buff Orpington, a Silver laced Wyandotte, an Ameraucana, a Langshan, and a Plymouth Rock. My question...we have had only one egg. Our chickens are bright eyed, have beautiful feathers, and moist vents. We are feeding high quality laying pellets. We have fake eggs in the nesting boxes. They are suposed to be 10 months old to one year. What is the problem?
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If they are, in fact, 10 months old ... then probably just stress. I assume they had been kept with other chickens before you bought them ... new environment, new pecking order to sort out, you might be feeding them different feed then they were used to ... might take a little time for them to settle in and get comfortable.

Mine are normally champion layers except an occasional molt ... but I once switched from one healthy organic layer feed to a different healthy brand of layer feed and they went on strike for weeks until I switched back! Fussy little beasts!
 
I agree with @Mace Gill a lot of different things can stop a chicken from laying. Once they get comfortable to their new home you should be ok. I had them stop laying because we didn't have enough egg boxes(even though they all want to use the same one). I went from 8 boxes to 12 and they were happy again. even when you buy adult hens from places and they have bee laying for a year they may stop since they are in a new environment.
 
Thank you for the replies. I have been worried that maybe they are older than we were told. We are happy keeping them as pets but would really love some eggs. Guess we will hope for a few more weeks before giving up on them.
 
janiedoe said:
Thank you for the replies. I have been worried that maybe they are older than we were told. We are happy keeping them as pets but would really love some eggs. Guess we will hope for a few more weeks before giving up on them.
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Keep us updated! If it doesn't work out, but you want to try again ... get pullets ... about eight weeks old or so.
 
Finally a second egg! The middle egg is real. The other two are dummy eggs. We are so excited!
 

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