Buff Orpington Not Laying Eggs

[Casa de Poults]

Hi Group. We have a orpington that was hatched on 4/29/13. We love her. She is a 4-H project. She has laid one egg so far and nothing else. She is the only chicken we have as of yet. Is this the problem? She is lonely? She has two tortoises and two dogs to play with in the yard. I feed her the best feed out there and she gets "party mix" as a snack. She lives in the Taj Mahal of all coops. Why is she not laying more eggs?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

The Buff Orpingtons I have found are really not terrific layers. So I always have a few or more around and there will be some that aren't laying at any given time. If you need eggs for your family really bad I'd get some sex links. Or Black Australorps.

However, this is her pullet year and really, she should lay pretty well during the pullet year. So.....I would start with her feed.

What is party mix?
And what are you feeding her?

Then, companionship is a must...she needs another chicken for company. They are terribly lonely without a buddy chicken. So the thing is, it is tricky to get another adult chicken without passing disease on to your chicken. Get one from a respected source. Make sure their flock doesn't have colds (chronic respiratory disease). Treat the new one for mites and lice, repeating every 7 days x 2.

Any stress at all can stop them from laying.

 

[Bullitt]

Hi Group. We have a orpington that was hatched on 4/29/13. We love her. She is a 4-H project. She has laid one egg so far and nothing else. She is the only chicken we have as of yet. Is this the problem? She is lonely? She has two tortoises and two dogs to play with in the yard. I feed her the best feed out there and she gets "party mix" as a snack. She lives in the Taj Mahal of all coops. Why is she not laying more eggs?

Your Oprington was born on April 29 of this year? That means she is just over 4 months old, or about 19 weeks.

If so, I am surprised she has already laid an egg. The average for a chicken pullet to start laying eggs is around 22 to 24 weeks.

Just give her a little time and she will start laying eggs regularly.

By the way, chickens do like being around other chickens, so you should get her a few friends.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
Oh hooray! Bullit has it! She's not old enough!

 

[dkissler]

Hi All,
I have a Buff Orpington who is 35 weeks old and hasn't laid an egg yet. We have 3 other chickens of various breeds and they have all been laying for near 3 months. Our BO sits in a nest whenever any of the other birds are in their nests laying an egg but she never seems to produce any eggs. The nest that is sits in doesn't have any eggs or golf balls, she is just sitting in an empty nest and comes out when the other birds do. She still seems to be very healthy - eating, drinking, pecking, running around the yard like normal but just no eggs. I am concerned that she might be egg bound but doesn't display any of the lethargic behaviors that are associated with being egg bound. If anyone has any advice to why she might be so late to laying eggs I would love to hear your thoughts.


Thanks,
Dawn

p.s.
She has additional light because the sun sets so early so she is getting 14 hours of light each day.