Anyone ever have a hen that never lays?

[adele]

I have two of the blighters! Both enormous Black Australorps. They are beautiful but useless freeloaders at the moment. They both started laying at around 32 weeks old, but just laid occasional large double yolkers with thin shells in odd places, like in the middle of the lawn or in the flower garden. They both stopped as soon as the weather got hot, shortly after they came into lay and one went broody for a few days. They both seem healthy and it is autumn now, one has molted the other tried to lay an egg the other day and it broke in the nest box as it had thin shell again. I don't know what to do with them. eveything I have read about this breed tells me they are fantastic layers and lay all year even in the winter. Well, if these two don't get their act together soon it might be off to freezer camp. I only have one bantam laying at the moment so I have to buy eggs.

 

[speckledhen]

Some hens have issues with processing calcium well (try a vitamin supplement containing vitamin D) and some are clearly not good layers that their breeds would indicate. You can have duds, for sure.

 

[RiddleMe]

I have two of the blighters! Both enormous Black Australorps. They are beautiful but useless freeloaders at the moment. They both started laying at around 32 weeks old, but just laid occasional large double yolkers with thin shells in odd places, like in the middle of the lawn or in the flower garden. They both stopped as soon as the weather got hot, shortly after they came into lay and one went broody for a few days. They both seem healthy and it is autumn now, one has molted the other tried to lay an egg the other day and it broke in the nest box as it had thin shell again. I don't know what to do with them. eveything I have read about this breed tells me they are fantastic layers and lay all year even in the winter. Well, if these two don't get their act together soon it might be off to freezer camp. I only have one bantam laying at the moment so I have to buy eggs.

I'd be careful with that, I have one who lays the occasional thin shelled egg, hard to pick up without breaking it. My best EE (jumbo size blue green eggs - 5 per week) ended up discovering a tasty treat and is now a convicted egg eater who is going to have to be culled. I had hoped I could just isolate and either break her of the habit or collected often enough to remove hers before she could eat them, but it hasn't worked...And the isolation has just stressed her out. If I can figure out who is laying the thin shelled egg, they will probably also go so no one else develops the issue, but since it is just occasionally...