Australians - Where are you all????

[guinea fowl galore]

Yeah they will, Forgot to mention that. The chooks will also start dropping and squatting at you, an action they do for a rooster to mount them. Chooks with no rooster around tend to drop and squat at people while chooks who are or have been in with rooster don't.

 

[Christie Loves Silkies]

My girls don't squat at all for my rooster... I don't think they do O.O
Well not that I see from.
My chickies are 10 weeks old on Friday
Time flies!

 

[Aussie Lady]

Thanks Christie and Guinea for your advice. The chickens certainly don't look lanky, they look like older chickens to me, I suppose I just have to be patient. Thanks Guinea re: fleece. I tell you what, I will be jumping up and down when I see my first egg. I will be going on my placement for 3 weeks at the end of May to Kingaroy - who knows they may decide to lay when I'm gone.

 

[Christie Loves Silkies]

There is no way to tell what day/ week a pullet is going to start laying.
I waited 2 weeks just to get an egg from one of my girls, she was driving me crazy with an egg song for 2 darn weeks!
I was starting to get worried about her

 

[redfeather13]

my white sussex has started sqatting for me when I go down with their feed
I just stroke down her back a few times, she has a shake

and walks away happy

 

[Rachel96]

About POL hens not laying - I've noticed that a lot of time hens are sold as POL when in fact they're as young as 12 or 14 weeks - much too young to start laying! I've also heard that if they're due to start laying at the beginning of winter or during winter, they often don't start until spring. Also if they're moulting, they don't lay.

There are lots of factors as to why a pullet mightn't be laying, but if you bought them as POL and they aren't laying yet, I would suggest that they weren't actually point of lay. I make a point to ask for the chicken's age in weeks on purchase rather than having someone tell me they're meant to start laying soon!

 

[Christie Loves Silkies]

About POL hens not laying - I've noticed that a lot of time hens are sold as POL when in fact they're as young as 12 or 14 weeks - much too young to start laying! I've also heard that if they're due to start laying at the beginning of winter or during winter, they often don't start until spring. Also if they're moulting, they don't lay.

There are lots of factors as to why a pullet mightn't be laying, but if you bought them as POL and they aren't laying yet, I would suggest that they weren't actually point of lay. I make a point to ask for the chicken's age in weeks on purchase rather than having someone tell me they're meant to start laying soon!

Yes that is true.
Depending on the age of the bird as well.
One of my girls I got in April last year she was about 4-5 months old, a month later, she started to lay, then my other girl started to lay in the middle of Winter and all through Winter they both laid.
But my birds free range and get 8-10 hours Sunlight a day, therefore my birds lay through out Winter.

 

[Rachel96]

My chickens aren't free ranging at the moment but will be soon (starting next week or so; new fence now so they can have quite a large area without having to worry about them so much), so hopefully they'll lay throughout next winter. I do have a number of POL-ish birds at the moment though. My father's birds, who have a larger area than mine do at present (but much smaller than what they're moving to!!!) have been laying so far, although less than in summer.

 

[redfeather13]

I have a friend who has on young hen who has just started to lay, sporadically, about 3 months after two others the same age

she (my friend) was starting to wave the axe

I'm glad it didn't come to that

 

[redfeather13]

I'm sure that one of my older girls (the black one) has a little sing song when she just thinks about laying. She seems to think that's enough