Chickens will never lay.

[guineafowlguy]

I hatched some production reds on Feb, 5, 2013 and have been fighting to get them to lay to this day. I fed them chick starter for 3 months after they hatched and transitioned to 16% protein sweet feed for the next 6 months. I switched them over to layer pellet as they were not laying. I added a 75w light to the coop and increased the hours 1 hour a day until it hit 18 hours of light. That was in December. Now it is almost February and still no eggs. I have looked for parasites and found none. They have always had fresh water and bedding every day. I dump out the ice and give them fresh 50 degree water every mourning. I have tried everything I can think to do. Now they are almost one year old. Please help.

Edit: They are getting 100% layer pellet. All they can eat. I am not mixing any other grain with their food. They have access to crushed limestone.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

18 hours of light seems extreme. Commercial operations use 14 hours and when I used to add light I only used 12 hours which kept pullets laying all winter.

It's odd they never laid this past fall, this winter they likely went into a molt which would delay laying for another 2 to 3 months. I've heard of winter hatched pullets going into full molt first year.

Personally I'd make soup if they don't start laying by March.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

You're not hearing any crowing sounds, are you?? ;-) Could they be hiding the eggs somewhere? But you'd certainly think you would have found some evidence of eggs by this time.

Yep, soup sounds good!

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Do you free range them?
If so, you might need to hunt for eggs.

If not, is it possible something can be getting into your coop at any point, even thru the door during the day (think egg robbing birds like jays and crows, squirrels, rats, mice).

I find it odd they've never given you eggs, its possible to have a chicken that doesn't lay, but it sounds like you've got a flock of them.

They're really good at hiding those eggs tho...

 

[citygirlfarmer]

I feel your frustration, I have two hens one has been laying since she was about 5 months old the other a Ameracauna is 9 months old and still no sign of eggs. I've tried everything I know, maybe when it gets an little warmer, although we are here in Sacramento, Ca not real cold as of yet.

 

[TheRedRoostIn]

I'm having this same problem but my hens are 2years and a lil older all last summer from 30 hens I was getting 18-25 eggs a day and then lay began slowing down and to a compleet stop about August and I have gotten 3 eggs since ive wormed, waited for molt and added high protien feed, I just cant figure it out. I don't want to cull 30 hens and even with age I should still be getting SOME! eggs rite?

 

[GD91]

Got 1 pullet hatched in June & 3 more hatched in September.

No eggs from the older bird, I'm hoping they will all start in spring

We haven't added supplemental light, I'd rather just buy some winter laying breeds. We get about 8 hours of light in the winter.

 

[guineafowlguy]

Sorry I haven't replied in a long time. My chickens decided to make me look crazy by laying an egg in one of the nest boxes. It is kind of a YESSSSS moment and a felling stupid with the timing.
But I haven't gotten another egg yet. It is two days after the first one. I must admit that one chicken did lay once but that was like 2 months ago. She never laid again. 1 egg every 2 months is still not to good.

They are all hens NOT ROOSTERS. And only one of them is laying maybe. I guess we will see what happens in a few days. These production reds lay like silkies.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

At least you got an egg! Have you searched around for signs of a hidden nest?
And for what its worth, my Silkies are giving me an egg a day/every other day right now

 

[Scribbles]

The most mind-boggling egglaying story I have is that I got my Easter Egger hen over a year ago (back in fall of 2012, which was the start of our chicken-keeping adventures), the other chicken was merrily laying away almost an egg a day...she laid one smallish egg, kind of weird-shaped, thin-shelled, and bloody...and then never laid again. I figured she was either internally defective or she was older than the seller had let on (which was what our third chicken was, I figured out from lurking around BYC that she was old and the seller probably got rid of her because she wasn't laying anymore). Since she's pretty much the smartest/most attentive chicken in the flock and otherwise seemed perfectly healthy, I kept her on since she's absolutely great at spotting hawks and acts as the flock's lookout when they free-range. I just added more hens to make a good number of daily eggs...for our house that was four laying chickens and Piper the sentry.

Fast-forward to last Friday, where we'd brought the chickens up onto the covered porch because of the stupid abrupt cold, and I look out at the porch coop through the window... "Is that a BLUE EGG?!"

Yep, sitting on the roof of the porch mini-coop was a weird, bullet-shaped blue egg. Sadly because it was exposed, it had frozen and cracked...but it's been three days since then and we've already gotten two more blue eggs.

I have NO idea what triggered this but I'm not complaining! I just thought I had the world's smartest/most attentive dud hen.

Of course I don't suggest anyone hold onto a non-laying adult hen you don't want for an additional FOURTEEN MONTHS since that seems highly unlikely to produce results, but...well, it worked out for me because I wanted her regardless, haha.