Help a new chicken family with hens that won't lay!

If you read through here for a while you will see that many folks' hens have either drastically cut back on laying or (as is my case) stopped completely. It's the season (unless you are in another part of the world)! Three of mine never started laying at all and the other three have stopped. Some people's have started back some have not. I think the more you have the better your chances that somebody will lay of course. You may try moving the tractor to see if that is a factor.
sharon

 

My birds have not been bothered by my barking dogs. What behavior do the chickens exhibit, when this barking is going on? Do they seem stressed? Have you checked every possible spot in the run and coop. My first new layer, left her's behind my chip barrel in the coop. Don't give up. Spring is coming!

 

chin up! i wouldnt throw in the towel until spring

 

Hens need at least 14 hrs of light a day to lay. With the shorter winter days, many hens don't lay this time of year. You can try providing them with supplemental light in their coop by putting a light on in there on a timer to add the extra hours of light needed to get them up to 14 hrs a day. But at this point, you may end up waiting until spring. FWIW, I just had a 40 wk old wyandotte lay her first egg and I do add supplemental light!

 

If their combs and faces are bright red (fire engine red) then I bet they are laying outside when free ranging. To fix that lock them in coop for a day or two no run time. That should get them laying in nest boxes. If you do not have fake eggs in boxes get some and put them in. Hens like to lay where others have. Fake eggs trick them to use nest boxes by looking like a hen layed there. You can use golf balls for this or wooden eggs.

 

I find it hard to believe you haven't gotten a single egg, you may need to actually look closer at some other factors. hen's like to be comfortable in all respects before they lay, A tractor isn't the otptimal situation for laying, stress and safety is a factor if they they don't feel well they won't lay.

WTS my first thought since your birds are new to laying is you may have the dreded EGG EATER!!!!!!!, if at any time they ever accidently broke an egg they figure out real quick that it taste great and you will never ever see an egg ever, you can't cure an egg eater, and I don't care what anybody else say's you just can't.

AL

 

Hens do not lay in winter.

They need at least 14 hours of daylight in order to lay eggs. It could be that, with you getting your girls in May, by the time they were of laying age (~October), the days were too short for them to start. One easy way to fix this is to put a light on a timer in their coop, so that it turns on around 4:00-5:00 in the morning, for however long is necessary relative to the daylength that you are getting there now. This additional light should lengthen the daylength to 14-16 hours for them (14 minimum). You want to run the light in the morning, not in the evening, so that the chickens won't get confused when they try to put themselves up for the night.

We noticed our egg production starting to get down around 1-2 eggs/day, and it was back up to 4 (for 4 hens) within a week after adding the light.
Don't give up! You will get eggs--they're just taking their own sweet time.

Best of luck!
--Hazel


BTW: I would not think that a barking dog would scare your hens off laying.

 

Welcome, George!

First, it would be helpful, somewhat, to know where you live. If you can go to your "profile" page, and edit your personal info. to state which part of which country you live in, it will help the folks you write to give advice on your coop, run, yard, predator advice, etc. That goes for lighting, too.

Wherever you live in the continental US, the daylight hours are too short right now to stimulate egg production in pullets that have not thus far laid.

If you can rig up some artificial lighting in the coop for about 6 hours in the day total, such as 5 pm to 11 pm, it should provide all the light you need to get them laying, depending on where you are.

If your coop is too far away from the house to run an extension cord, try some battery-operated LED lights (Christmas lights).

Home Depot carries these ($6 each), and I run 5 sets in the coop, all bunched up into light bouquets, on rechargeable AA batteries. They last about 2 weeks on one charge, so far.

This will likely be enough to stimulate egg laying, and if it doesn't work, you can always use the lights to decorate some trees far from the house

If they don't lay, then stress may be the main factor to work with. Probably it's just lighting.

Hope this is helpful.