Baby Girl, a Barr Rock raised form 5 days old. laid a few small practice eggs months ago. now there are just crushed tiny shrived looking no shelled occasional ones in her poo. she goes in the nest box with no results. she even whines and seems miserable for a while..... The other Barr Rock is a bit younger and lays an egg everyday or so.....then the youngest hen, then started lying her first egg last week, in a Pet Carrier I fixed up in their main run.... Even thought there ae two nest boxe in the one coop and three in the bigger coop......I got the other two BR as pullets couple months ago..... The reason I have two coops and runs is a long story. I gave away the older two year old set last month . cause the two diff rOO fought constantly. then ... long story. LOL I gave my straight run STARTER food for weeks then when ran out gave them Layin crumbles. with always electrolytes for water . Now mostly corn.. whole or cracked..., millet, milo, BOSS, niger seeds, peanuts, organic pellets, Feather Fixer.... a little beans with brown rice She, BG, is dominant hen, hogs about everything. the pellets are her last choice..ALSO give electrolyte and probotics in most of their water everyday. I mix up a quart at a time... They have two runs now enclosed all over ....then the big fenced 100 by 100 yard.. then an hour or two before they go in I let them run around the rest of property, semi supervised... oh I also will mix up some "KICKING Chicken" in the corn flour left from me grinding whole corn or the "dust " from the small pellets...... I bought the "NUTRI Drench" .... she will not take it..... SHE will turn her head and fight to get down trying of course with little syringes.... the small ones I gave the Valzaban, and before the Safeguard Goat wormer in... I also bought some REooster Booster pellets.... Could she be lacking some basic nutrients or is it a physical problem, maybe from not being on Starter her whole young chick days??? thanks yall
Why are you giving them all of these other additions to their diet? Am I understanding that their main diet is layer pellets? If so, and any kitchen additions you give them are less than 10% of their diet, the extras are not needed at all. Especially, the Nutri-Drench and the Rooster booster. Also, the electrolytes need to be reserved for starting stressed chicks, and perhaps summer time high heat stress or when birds are not eating. They should be drinking plain water. While the pro-biotics won't hurt them, they are un-necessary once the birds get an active flora going in their guts. It sounds like you are trying to do everything right and give them the best nutrition possible. I'd like to suggest that you look at the Fermented Feed and Sprouting threads. These feed options will give your girls a nutritional advantage, and actually save you money instead of buying extra products that they don't need. They are most likely not eating the pellets because of all the other goodies you are giving them. While it's fun to see the flock gobble up the treats we provide, unless those treats are provided in a nutritionally balanced blend, (with the correct amount of protein, calcium and all of the other nutrients that make a balanced chicken diet) it may actually hamper their egg production. Of course, you must realize that I am only giving my opinion here.
i have been doing some sprouting in jars. and have winter wheat growing under hdwe cloth boxed frames in their runs... bought even more sprouting seeds to do the spouts that grow like big plugs.....looking for the 10 inch square black trays to grow them in.... heck they much rather have the grains then the blah pellets..... so what do yall think is keeping BABY Girl from laying eggs??????
I'd go back to basics, keep it simple: A good nutritionally balanced chicken feed, always available. Clean, plain water fresh everyday. Maybe some treats each day...less than 10% of their daily normal volume of the balanced feed. I'm not real clear on your total flock population and how they are housed. You may need multiple feed/water stations if you have some birds hogging the feed and keeping other birds for partaking. Adequate space and ventilation are key. Chickens like a steady, consistent environment.....changes stress them out, which can cause a plethora of problems. Changes(feed, housing,population) should be done slowly and given time to assess the effect, it can take a couple days to a couple weeks to assess the effect of any change. After getting them on simple straight forward diet for a few weeks, see how things are going and slowly add other foods if you wish, keeping in mind overall nutrition. This is the feed regime I have used for a year now and it has worked out well: I like to feed an 'all flock' 20% protein crumble to all ages and genders. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat and have calcium available at all times for the layers, oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container. The higher protein crumble offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer.
I have only 3 hens and one Roo now.. two large runs and two seperate coops...... Only Baby Girl has NOT laying eggs problem thanks yall