Chicken soup or am I doing something wrong????

[mtripp]

So I started my chicken adventure with 8 buff orpington chicks. I then was given 3 already laying Rhode Island Reds??
They came from an over crowded coop. The first night here I got 1 egg, it has been about a month and I have managed to get 1 edible egg. They have laid maybe 5 but broke the others. When I first got them I didn't have the run bult yet so they where all in the coop 8x4. I have since finished the run 10x8 and they now free range from sun up till sun down.
I feed them layer crumble, because the lady helping me knew just as much as I did (which wasn't much) and I have a container of oyster shells out for them. They have a roost in the coop but I always find them sleeping in the egg box.

So any help would be appreciated, I'm not interested into hanging onto birds that aren't going to lay eggs.

 

[mnferalkitty]

It would help to know how old the chickens are

 

[mtripp]

The chicks are about 3 months, I'm not concerned about the chicks. I realize it wont be until fall for them to lay. I'm wondering about the older ones.

 

[mnferalkitty]

Do you know how old the "older" chickens are? Your post just says they are "older"

 

[mtripp]

I do not know the ageof the older chicks.

 

[mnferalkitty]

Then my guess would be that maybe they are 2 yrs or even older and when chickens get older they don't lay a lot of eggs if any. This is just a guess.

 

[cjwaldon]

Make sure your roosts are higher than the nest boxes, else they will sleep in the nest boxes. Might also be due to age difference. My younger chickens will choose the nest boxes as a hide-away from the older birds which chase them off the roosts.

 

[mtripp]

The roosts are higher than the boxes. About 3.5 feet above floor level.