Auracana not laying, need advice please

[cluckasuedledoo]

I received an Araucana (probably EE, ear tufts, short tail), hen recently who appears to me to be fairly young but she is not laying. The young woman who had her kept her as a pet in the house. When I arrived to pick her up her the young woman was not home and her boyfriend told me the hen was fed cracked corn, that she was not laying because she was molting, that she was a little less than a year old and had quit laying about 3 weeks earlier. Her legs are not crusty and scaly but because she is dark skinned, I can't use the nice yellow leg method. Her legs are not large but her nails are fairly long in proportion to her toes. She has no evidence of feather loss but seems fairly light for her size. She seemed very unsure of what a slice of apple was, uncertain of what grass under her feet was and finally after nearly a week will get down off the roost to peck and scratch around.
Her first 24 hours with me, she barely drank any water and is now going through roughly 1.5 to 3 cups a day.
I am providing her with a layer crumble, a handful of cracked corn mix and about a cup of granite grit.
She has free access to all of the above as well as green grass, dandelions and other assorted weeds.
She is eating the greens, seemed really puzzled over the apple slice I gave her, but eats very little of the crumble.
After a week of being here she is finally making the soft purring noise they make when they are happy but I am still worried about her. She is so sweet and submissive. She is not sneezing, scratching or exhibiting any kind of illness. She is currently alone so I'm wondering if being around other hens might put her in the mood to lay or show more interest in her food?
Please don't laugh or send me goofy replies. I really would like some help. Thanks!

p.s The nice Buff in the picture is obviously not the hen I'm concerned about.

P.S.S. I know I spelled it wrong, just can't edit the title. Staying up too late surfing BYC!

 

[sourland]

Well, if fed nothing but cracked corn, her metabolism has a lot of catching up to do. Perfectly healthy, well treated hens usually stop laying for a period when their environment is changed. I think that you are doing all the right things and realistically have nothing to worry about. Be patient, sounds like she is doing fine.

 

[cluckasuedledoo]

I think I've decided that my hen is most likely an Ameraucana not Araucana. She has a tail, miniscule comb, tufts and a muff around her throat. She has dark legs which do show the shape of scales but seem to be smooth when you run your thumb along them. My concern is that she has a sort of long back toe (spur?). Her vent is yellow but when she winks it, it is pink inside. It does not seem very moist.
The guy told me she hadn't laid in 3 weeks because she was molting but today is the first day I've seen a feather on the ground under her roost. I have leg pictures but am not allowed to post them here. Too new I guess. Do young hens have that rear facing toe? Is it normal for a dark legged chicken to have a yellow skinned vent? She was very tolerant of my poking, prodding and photographing her hiney. She had 2 poops under her roost that were shiny black like tar and sort of runny. All the others were fairly firm and a mix of brown and white.
Should I be concerned about the shiny black ones? Am I being overly paranoid? I've only raised hens from chicks and have never had a full grown one given to me, so I knew their age. This one has me stumped. Thx again for not laughing at me.

 

[SkyeSchazade]

If all she had been fed previously was cracked corn it is going to take her body a while to adjust to the new healthy diet. You might want to go easy on the greens and other things until she has adjusted to eating the layer crumbles. Introduce new things to her slowly. I would also decrease the amount of corn she has access to until you can just remove it completely. As much as chickens love corn it really should not be a main component of the diet. Use it as a treat instead. I heard a while ago that feeding alot of corn can make vents look yellow, not sure how true that is. The poops will vary in appearance/consistency, that is normal. Here is a good link to a "poo chart", there are several good threads on here about what is normal and whats not. http://chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0 Since chickens are flock animals keeping them alone is really not good for them, you should get at least one other friend for her. Look for a hen close in age and with a laid back mellow personality, a hen that has the scratching/pecking/foraging behavior down might help encourage your wall flower become more active and chicken like. Throw out all your expectations for getting eggs from her, give her time to adjust to all of these changes. One day she may surprise you with a pretty blue gift! It sounds like you are doing an awesome job with her so far, Good luck!