chicken newbies with a few questions..

[mommymem]

Hi all,
I've looked through various threads and found some answers but still a bit curious to what others may think. We adopted a pair of 2 yr old Buff Orpingtons. At first they were both laying then one stopped and hasn't laid in a few weeks now. I understand stress could be a factor to her not laying but I thought she would of started laying again by now. Is it age? The other hen seems to lay fine.

Since the 2nd hen isn't laying we're looking into getting more chickens. But some of the things I've read here about adding younger chickens with the older 2 aren't a good idea.. We were considering Silver Laced Wyanadottes. Any advice? We have a spacious coop large enough for 6.

Any and all advice welcome!

Thanks!
Mommymem, Cape Cod, MA

 

[flowerhippie]

Buff Orphington's are great mommy's and this may stimulate the hen that is not laying well to go into her cycle. A buff will usually give a abundant 220 eggs as a average in one cycle. I give a five way scratch grain and plenty of gritt and oyster shell for calcium this will give the egg it's ability to form in the hen with out taking extra nourshment from the hens strength. I would not hesitate to put the new baby's in the house only after they are about 5 to 7 weeks old, this is when the fluff has matured into full feathering one of the reasons for not putting the young chicks with the older hens is because they will try to get under the hen, this will upset her because she is smart enough to know they were the eggs she sat on for 28 days. Also make sure the new chicks are active enough to run and hope to get there own food with out needing to be shown what to do. the effort is rewarding.. Good luck

 

[WoodlandWoman]

If she's only 2 years old, age isn't the problem. She's probably stopped laying because of the stress of going to a new home, unless she went broody. Is she acting normally or staying in the nest all the time? If she's acting normally, she probably just needs a little more time to go back to laying. She had to get used to new caretakers, a new coop, a new run, new water, possibly new food, a new schedule and a new environment that may have different animals in it, wild or domestic. That's a lot of changes all at once and chickens are not big fans of change.

 

[mommymem]

Thanks for the advice! We've since made hanging feeder and waterer and they seem much happier now. Maybe we'll get some more eggs soon now that they are more settled in. Either way they are fun to have around!