About a month ago I bought a few chickens from a neighbor whose kids got bored of them. There are two adult hens, an adult rooster, and two that were chicks (about 11 weeks old now). They are some sort of bantam EE mix and a white leghorn. I could never really get a straight answer from the previous owner on the age of the older birds; I am not sure she knew. She claimed they were laying, and there were eggs in the coop when I picked them up, but I'm not sure those eggs came from any of these birds. (They were brown, and the leghorn at least should lay white, who knows about the others but those were not bantam eggs...). Since I have gotten them, I have not gotten a single egg.
I thought at first it was stress from the move. Well, they've settled in nicely and are very content, and still nothing. They're not molting. I make sure their diet has enough calcium and protein. Still nothing. I thought maybe it was because it's winter, but I have two friends with flocks of chickens here that do not have artificial light, live in similar arrangements, and eat the same diet, and both flocks are still laying though mine are not.(Theirs are Barred Rock, Jersey Giant, and Leghorn). It's not incredibly cold here, no snow, plenty of sunshine and nice weather. I don't have the ability to put a light in my coop since there's no electricity close enough. And the chickens don't really like to stay in it anyway; they prefer to hang out in my goat shed instead.
I am wondering if I bought very old hens that are not laying anymore, or maybe the two adult hens in question are still too young. The combs on both are bright red, indicating that they should be old enough to lay. I am unable to catch the EE hen, but caught the leghorn this morning to check the width of her pelvic bones, on the advice of a friend. They are very close together, indicating that she is not laying? Could that mean she is too old, or is she definitely too young, or is it just because she is not laying right now? Is there any way to estimate about how old they are by looking at them? Also, I have not seen the rooster show any interest in mating the hens. That seems unusual to me. The leghorn at least will 'squat' if I touch her on the back. I also had another rooster I borrowed for a while from a friend, he was about a year old, and he did not show interest in these hens either....?
Any thoughts?
I thought at first it was stress from the move. Well, they've settled in nicely and are very content, and still nothing. They're not molting. I make sure their diet has enough calcium and protein. Still nothing. I thought maybe it was because it's winter, but I have two friends with flocks of chickens here that do not have artificial light, live in similar arrangements, and eat the same diet, and both flocks are still laying though mine are not.(Theirs are Barred Rock, Jersey Giant, and Leghorn). It's not incredibly cold here, no snow, plenty of sunshine and nice weather. I don't have the ability to put a light in my coop since there's no electricity close enough. And the chickens don't really like to stay in it anyway; they prefer to hang out in my goat shed instead.
I am wondering if I bought very old hens that are not laying anymore, or maybe the two adult hens in question are still too young. The combs on both are bright red, indicating that they should be old enough to lay. I am unable to catch the EE hen, but caught the leghorn this morning to check the width of her pelvic bones, on the advice of a friend. They are very close together, indicating that she is not laying? Could that mean she is too old, or is she definitely too young, or is it just because she is not laying right now? Is there any way to estimate about how old they are by looking at them? Also, I have not seen the rooster show any interest in mating the hens. That seems unusual to me. The leghorn at least will 'squat' if I touch her on the back. I also had another rooster I borrowed for a while from a friend, he was about a year old, and he did not show interest in these hens either....?
Any thoughts?
