Hens not laying, not broody, no chicks :(

We don't supplement light and don't intend to.
We are getting plenty of eggs for eating for other hens...

Some chickens seem able to lay eggs during naturally short winter days, and some do not.
I don't know why that is so, but I would guess that your Orpingtons are taking the winter off, and that your other hens are from breeds that are better layers.

The Orpingtons will probably start laying again when the days get longer in the spring.
If you get an incubator, you can hatch the eggs as soon as they start laying.
Or you can wait to see if a hen goes broody, and try to have her do the incubating and chick raising.

My older hens have become broody natural with no rooster in sight

A rooster can fertilize the eggs, but does not affect whether the hens go broody.

If one of your other hens goes broody, you can put Orpington eggs under her, so she can hatch them and raise the chicks.

A broody hen does not care whether she hatches her own eggs or eggs from some other hen.
 
I always love a BO chicken in my flock, and mine over the years have always gone broody.
However, mine in western SD, tend to go broody in late May or June, twice or three times in July and once in October. Mostly in May, June or July.

I always thought it was when the days get longer. As you cook, keep track how many of the eggs are fertilized. If you have a high rate of fertilization, you can set with confidence.

If I think that maybe, a hen might be thinking about it, leave either fake or real eggs piled up a bit in a nest. For some birds, several eggs in a pile can be enough to flip the broody switch.

If you get one, that does not roost at night, and stays on the nest all day...WAIT...WAIT a few days. You do not know how many times, I get so excited, get a clutch together, only for her to change her mind... get off the nest for a couple of days... and THEN get serious... and you set all your good eggs in the first attempt...so wait.

Mrs K
 
We bought them to have chicks and they have yet to get broody, they hardly lay any eggs, they don't use the nesting boxes and never have, and they don't roost (because the place we got them from had a weird set up).
Sorry that you're disappointed, but your expectations may have been off base.
Did you think that the JO's would automatically be broody?
Is your goal to hatch JO chicks, or any chicks?
Birds will either be broody or not, mostly their breed has no bearing.

The roosting and laying in nests can be 'fixed' with a bit of manipulation on your part.
The lack of broodiness can not.
 
I have 14 adult hens - 3 Buff Orpingtons, 10 Rhode Island Reds, and 1 Ameraucana. I do not provide supplemental light. I'm only getting about 2 eggs per day right now....from 14 chickens. Some days, I only get 1 egg. It's just a fact of winter.... My Ameraucana hasn't laid an egg since early November!

Over the past 3 years, I've had 6 Buff Orpingtons. In all that time, I only had TWO of the six who ever turned broody.

If you are looking for a consistently broody hen, you might want to try a different breed like a Sussex, Cochin, or Silkie
 
Sorry that you're disappointed, but your expectations may have been off base.
Did you think that the JO's would automatically be broody?
Is your goal to hatch JO chicks, or any chicks?
Birds will either be broody or not, mostly their breed has no bearing.

The roosting and laying in nests can be 'fixed' with a bit of manipulation on your part.
The lack of broodiness can not.
I have no expecations. I'm trying to learn more about chickens even though we have had them for several years. These particular chickens are new to us.

Yes, we want JO chicks only.

I understand chickens will be broody and breed doesn't matter. We have never had a rooster before, so again, I was here to learn and hopefully get useful comments that could help me.
 
Thanks for all your replies. These chickens, the JO's, are beautiful, and the rooster is the best. I never wanted a rooster bc I didn't want to deal with a lot of chicks (bc that's why I thought would happen) nor did I want to deal with a bad personality. So we decided to try something new and get a particular, beautiful lovely breed and hopefully have chicks and sell them. They do lay a bit more during the summer all over the place, not in a nest, the don't roost, they are just so much different from my other 9 hens that we have.
The ones that have gone broody are our jersey giants and wyandottes. For no reason, just to be annoying, really.

So, I wanted to have a learning conversation about these chickens, but I felt like most of the convo I already knew about anyway. I know that laying will slow in the winter, that's not exactly what I was asking about. Here in Alabama, it's been crappy colder than usual weather and I'm thankful my other girls have been giving me 4-6 eggs a day and up to 10 in the summer. They are great. The JO's have given us maybe 20 eggs since we have had them (it's been almost a year).
 

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