Hens wont mate

[RustiK]

Hi all,It’s taken a while to get back on here we lost all our flock to a Fox so couldn’t get back into it too quickly. We finally bought some Pekin bantams which we love. Two girls about 7 months old, two older girls appx 2 years and a rooster about two years as well.

They have been separated but next to each other for about a two months and now live together happy with no clear bossy pants yet. Have been living together for about two months but not one egg yet from anybody??

Also the rooster “Rusty” is doing his dance but the girls aren’t having any of it. So he ends up chasing them around most of the day. I haven’t seen him actually get one yet, poor guy.

I’m a bit stumped about the eggs and ladies not letting him do the funky dance with them? Any ideas?? Thanks I’ll post some pics soon.

 

[aart]

Days might not quite be long enough yet.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Cochins aren't the best of layers. It's possible that it's a bit too warm and is putting off your older girls. The younger pullets may not actually be old enough. Asiatic breeds often take longer to lay than Mediterranean breeds for instance. Combine that with warmer temps and they may wait until the fall.

 

[MountainGaurdian]

There are some things that can interfere with laying, stressed hens can stop laying though usually within a few days of the stressing event they start laying again.

Your hens should be laying eggs.. If they are not, something is amiss.

After I read this I went and got some ice and made some coffee and I was thinking about our flocks over the last 20 years and the thought occurred to me that every time this has happened to us, it turned out they "were" laying eggs, we just weren't finding them. Hell I turned an old junk travel trailer into a mobile chicken coup, several of them actually I just gutted them out. They made great chicken coups. I went in to feed in one of the coups one day and noticed I was missing my favorite little white hen, couldn't find her anywhere. I assumed that maybe one of the kids had accidentally let her out and she was running loose.

Three weeks later she had reappeared in the trailer accompanied by 15 chicks... I never did figure out how or where she hid out.

You might give some thought to any place the hens could potentially be hiding eggs. They are some crafty buggers when it comes to hiding a nest.