flickerfarkle
In the Brooder
- Feb 28, 2024
- 22
- 25
- 49
How old can a cotournix hen get before you give up on her ever laying an egg?
I have seven that hadn't laid an egg at 12 weeks. Then at the twelve week mark, I moved two of them into a breeding pen because that rooster had lost two of his hens (not obviously killed by the rooster), and I didn't want his three remaining hens to be overworked. It only took about a week before egg production from that pen went back to averaging five/day, so I'm pretty sure the two hens I'd added to that flock had blended in and were earning their keep.
Based on that I put a rooster (I'd been keeping in isolation) in the pen with the five spare hens. Not to get fertile eggs -- I already was getting all I needed from the breeding pens -- but because I hoped that receiving a rooster's affections would coax them into laying. Either that didn't work or the rooster I'd given them hadn't read the terms of his contract so I switched to another rooster.
A week later I started getting eggs from the five spare hens (who were temporarily keeping company with spare rooster #2), but never more than two in a day. Two one day, one the next. So on a given day, three and a half of the hens in that pen are freeloaders.
Which brings me to my question. What's your rule of thumb (assuming you have one) on hens earning their keep? Those five are now about 20 weeks, and I can't know which are and which aren't laying, but I know the majority aren't.
I figure it's time to pull, pluck and pan those five hens, but for my quail education, I'd like to know what you consider is "too old" to start laying eggs. And if you have any techniques you use for coaxing the hens that don't seem interested into starting.
I have seven that hadn't laid an egg at 12 weeks. Then at the twelve week mark, I moved two of them into a breeding pen because that rooster had lost two of his hens (not obviously killed by the rooster), and I didn't want his three remaining hens to be overworked. It only took about a week before egg production from that pen went back to averaging five/day, so I'm pretty sure the two hens I'd added to that flock had blended in and were earning their keep.
Based on that I put a rooster (I'd been keeping in isolation) in the pen with the five spare hens. Not to get fertile eggs -- I already was getting all I needed from the breeding pens -- but because I hoped that receiving a rooster's affections would coax them into laying. Either that didn't work or the rooster I'd given them hadn't read the terms of his contract so I switched to another rooster.
A week later I started getting eggs from the five spare hens (who were temporarily keeping company with spare rooster #2), but never more than two in a day. Two one day, one the next. So on a given day, three and a half of the hens in that pen are freeloaders.
Which brings me to my question. What's your rule of thumb (assuming you have one) on hens earning their keep? Those five are now about 20 weeks, and I can't know which are and which aren't laying, but I know the majority aren't.
I figure it's time to pull, pluck and pan those five hens, but for my quail education, I'd like to know what you consider is "too old" to start laying eggs. And if you have any techniques you use for coaxing the hens that don't seem interested into starting.
