- Aug 30, 2012
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So I recently purchased some chickens all were ~4 months old ish?
1 RIR rooster
2 RIR hens
2 Astrolorps
1 buckeye mix
4 red sex links
I have read 3 books and constructed an adequate hen house (above is a month old there is no more grass in the run) with a nice run and am wanting good egg birds. I have them on a mix of grower/finisher crumble and layer pellets with about a baby handful (about half a film canister full) of cracked corn as a treat at night along with some extra refrigerator scraps rice grapes etc.
My question is when are they going to start laying? They have ben in their coop/run since August and just moved from under the house to indoors (last week). The buckeye seems to be the largest and is definately in charge. They don't care for their food much but will pick at it if I am not feeding them scraps which they love. Any kind of wild grape or insect they go nuts over so I think they were scavenger farm birds. They also drink about a gallon of water a day. Some had snotty noses when I got them and one had goop eyes and I purchased some antibiotics for the water from the feed store which turned the water yellow and they all got better. Poop is white(regular) with some light brown. They eat about 2 cups a day and dont seem to do more as their feeder always has some left in it at night.
I put some golf balls in my nests and now they sit on the nests. We use Hay as the bedding as I have a huge hay field with a couple of round bales I get it from (bales are kept in the barn). I also throw some in the run and they go crazy looking for seeds and bugs etc.
I have heard putting some un pasterized apple cider vinegar in the water? Does this help?
Also 2 of them have bright pink heads the rest are fleshy pinkish red etc. except the buckeye who is just pink but the biggest. I was told and have read that when their heads go red they start laying but it has been a month and still nothing
Any help would be appreciated.
