Barnevelder has never layed... why??

[ChanR]

We were given a two week old barnevelder who is now two years old. She has never layed an egg. She is quite large, active, eats as normal, acts like a normal chook but just has never layed and we are wondering why or if there is something we could try to get her laying. She is housed with an aracuna chook (who does lay). They free range every other day and spent other days in their coop.

Anyway ever come across a hen that has never ever laid?

 

[barred2rock]

Which does she look more like? lol

 

[ChanR]

She looks like a hen, has never crowed.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Does she crow?

 

[Ursuline Chick]

sorry, I jumped the gun

 

[DougVC]

Are you sure she is not laying outside the coop? If you are free ranging she may be laying in a secret nest of her own. You would think over the course of 2 years the odds would have it that you would get eggs in the coop, but maybe not. Either way, perhaps keep them locked up for a week straight versus free ranging and see if she lays in the coop.

 

[barred2rock]

She looks like a hen, has never crowed.

Yeah, she's definitely a hen. Hmm... What does her diet consist of?

 

[ChanR]

Are you sure she is not laying outside the coop? If you are free ranging she may be laying in a secret nest of her own. You would think over the course of 2 years the odds would have it that you would get eggs in the coop, but maybe not. Either way, perhaps keep them locked up for a week straight versus free ranging and see if she lays in the coop.

That's the thing, we are actually part of a Kindy so there are times she is locked up for a whole week or two without free ranging and we never find any of her eggs. We only get the Aracunas every second day - easy to tell because its the blueish colour. They both only ever get to free range for 4 hours per day. Today she was cackling like she had laid an egg but we went straight to check and nothing.

Could she be laying and eating it straight away?

 

[ChanR]

Yeah, she's definitely a hen. Hmm... What does her diet consist of?

We feed her layer pellets and then sometimes mixed grain. She also gets fruit and food scraps from our Kindy morning tea and obviously grass etc when she free ranges.

 

[barred2rock]

We feed her layer pellets and then sometimes mixed grain. She also gets fruit and food scraps from our Kindy morning tea and obviously grass etc when she free ranges.

You might try cutting out everything except the layer feed. And only let here out to free range once she's eaten a good amount.