HELP, they just won't lay!!!

[the golden yolk]

Hi guys,

I know there is a million threads on here about chickens not laying but this is seriously going on too long now and I've tried everything I know.

I had 4 chicken (isa browns) that were at my place when i bought it, about 8 months ago.

after a couple of months of more eggs than i could point a stick at one of them wouldn't get off the roost for about 3 weeks not even to eat or drink... i asked around and i was told it was sick and it needed to be put down, so i did... only to figure out it was brooding and that i had put it down for no reason!
Believe me i feel bad enough about this as it is!

a few weeks later, i got 2 new chickens (1 x leghorn & 1 x black australorp) that were both about 17 weeks old.

around the same time i was given 1 x isa brown by someone (about 1yr old)

when i introduced them to the flock (3 x isa browns) they squabbled a bit for a week or so then more or less settled down.

a week later we all the fences on our property replaced which meant they had to get taken out of their large open aired pen and put into a smallish coop for about a week.

they have been in their large pen for about 3 months now and i haven't had an egg since the new ones were introduced, except for one tiny egg from one of the younger ones about a week after we got them... (it was only about an inch big)

I have them on the highest protein food i can find, they get plenty of scraps and fresh water daily...

is there anything else i can do or have i just screwed things up beyond belief to where i need to just start fresh with a new flock?!?

it is getting too expense and too much work to feed them with no reward!

any ideas will be appreciated!

 

[lclough1998]

keep snacks to a minimum, get a rooster and feed layer pellet?

 

[the golden yolk]

they were mainly fed laying pellets up until recently when i switched to a "higher" protein feed...

what do you mean by snack? am i over feeding them?

a rooster is just not an option as i live in suburban sydney... (i was warned by all my neighbors when i moved in, as the old owner of the house had a rooster for a month or so a long time prior to me buying the house... it caused all sorts of dramas apparently)

 

[lclough1998]

oops, I read back and you said scraps, not snacks. I was told by the guy at the feed store that if you feed too many snacks or scraps, it can make them not lay. Apparently the food is the perfect thing to feed them, not a ton of bread and stuff. I have been told that rooster ummm activity stimulates them and they start to lay. I understand it not being a option, my neighbors moved in, lived with my roosters for about 3 months then they called me and told me that the roosters would have to go. Unfortunately for them, my lot size says I can have all the animals I want, I just can't house them on the property line. Haa, If he had been nice I would have worked with him but since he was a jerk and made me cry, I don't care so much... I would try switching back to layer. How many nest boxes, what do you have them laying on? Straw or?

 

[the golden yolk]

I'll lay off on the scraps then for a while and see how that goes...

they have a internal area for sleeping (on a perch) and inside that is separate laying hutch which is about 4ft tall by 3fy long split into 2 levels, with straw in it. they were laying fine on this before though.

rooster activity... hahaha

oh i have also tried putting a fake egg in the hutch to see if they gives them the hint... needless to say that ain't working either!

 

[Den in Penn]

Free range, Predators, Molt
Three more things to think about. If they free range or have a large area with hiding places, have they decided to hide their eggs. I don't know what kind of egg eating predators you have in Sydney, but it possible. If that is Sydney Australia its fall and chickens molt in the fall. The 17 week olds aren't going to molt their first year. At 17 weeks I doubt they have started to lay regularly yet. Oh and the rooster effect is 0. His just being there has no direct effect on their egg laying.

 

[lclough1998]

Free range, Predators, Molt
Three more things to think about. If they free range or have a large area with hiding places, have they decided to hide their eggs. I don't know what kind of egg eating predators you have in Sydney, but it possible. If that is Sydney Australia its fall and chickens molt in the fall. The 17 week olds aren't going to molt their first year. At 17 weeks I doubt they have started to lay regularly yet. Oh and the rooster effect is 0. His just being there has no direct effect on their egg laying.

I had heard that roosters actively mating with hens helps to get them laying, not just by being there, don't know any facts, just what I heard (and I hear alot on this site )

 

[jwilson48]

i have also heard a rooster mating is absolutely not needed. i have one anyway, to protect the flock, but lots of people don't and eat fresh eggs for breakfast every day!