Do some hens never lay ??

[ScrambledAcresFarm]

I got 10 hens and 1 rooster from a friend of mine. All these chickens grew up together. They laid for her last year and laid until I got them. I've had them for 1 month, they have the best accommodations and still haven't laid 1 egg! They don't even leave the coop until 7:30 or 8:00. It gets daylight here at 6:30am. I have another pen that has 5 hens and I'm getting 3~4 eggs a day! So what is wrong with the other flock?

 

[greenmulberry]

I have a speckled sussex that is over two years old that has never laid.

We call her "freeloader" chicken.

 

[Montana-Hens]

There are women who can't have children. I would assume there are occassionally chickens who can't make eggs.

I have a Chantecler who is over 9 months old and has never laid an egg. As much as I hate to cull her.....her clock is ticking.

 

[speckledhen]

Since a hen is hatched with all the potential eggs she'll ever lay in her body already, it's possible that one could just not have any, a birth defect of sorts.

 

[chickbliss7]

I have been perplexed by one of my 6 chickens that has never laid an egg. She is the most developed, with large, dark red comb and wattles and bigger than the others. They are all 10 months old and except for the one, have been laying eggs regularly for months! At first I thought I must have a rooster--she is dominant and sometimes jumps on the backs of my Buff Orpingtons--not too viciously. She is a Barred Rock. My smaller Barred Rock is a great layer. Should I give up on her or could she be a (very) late bloomer? Actually, what could I do? I'm not the sort who would put her in a stew pot; my chickens are more like my pets. Just wondering how common this problem is? She is very sweet to me, squats at the sound of my voice, sits in my lap, etc. Strange...

 

[JennsPeeps]

I've got a banty cochin who is 11 months old and nary a squat nor egg is in sight.

She better start or... or... or... hrm. Guess I'll make her... um... do nothing. She's a "lawn ornament" as DBF calls her (though there's no lawn left to speak of in our back yard).

 

[Iwannachicken]

We saw my cousin last night and my hubby mentioned that I was getting some chickens, just hens, no roo. After they stopped lauging, my cousin in law, who said he grew up on a farm, said that hens wouldn't lay unless there was a rooster. Everything I've seen on this forum contradicts that.

Was he just trying to ruin it for me?

Karen

 

[CoopCrazy]

Hens will lay without a rooster, they just won't have fertilized eggs. So no babies.

 

[JennsPeeps]

Quote:
Nope. He's just proving that he doesn't know squat about hens. Ask him if a man must be present in order for a woman to menstruate. That will a) make him blush b) prove him wrong.

BTW, I've got 4 hens, 0 roosters, and I get eggs daily.

 

[Iwannachicken]

Thanks for the info and advice. Next time I see him (at Christmas, probably) I'll give him a couple of eggs from my roosterless hens.