I am having a really hard time raising chickens...

[Debbie09011970]

Can I suggest something? Why don't you buy from Tractor Supply or another store similar to that which sells chicks?

Tractor Supply is no longer sellng babies but they get their babies from the same place that I get mine--the hatcheries.

 

[Debbie09011970]

Are the babies from Ideal Poultry laying yet? Or are they still growing up?


It looks to me like most of your problems (except predators) have come from buying adult hens from one source or another.

So yes, I would try buying chicks from a hatchery (like Ideal Poultry), raising them yourself, and see if they do better. At least you will know for sure how old they are, and newly-hatched chicks are less likely to bring in new diseases (as compared with adult hens, who obviously did bring disease with them on at least one occasion.)

I don't know if it is worth testing the current adult hens to see if they have any diseases, or not. If they did have something, they might have passed it on to your current batch of new chicks.

The ones that I purchased from Ideal Poultry were born July 19th, so, no, not laying yet.

 

[3KillerBs]

But they're not laying anything. That's the problem. I have had some of them 3 months with zero eggs. I didn't expect top notch production at first but I am getting ZERO eggs from 99.9 of them. I am lucky this week if I get 1 egg a day. I get that under $10 for young birds is a good price and I can't expect the best but I expected something--anything.

Yes, and that's a quite likely scenario for the situation.

The stress of moving often puts the hen off laying and sends them into molt. It's as likely as not for them to not resume laying until the days start getting longer rather than shorter.

You could try adding artificial light to see if you can restart them. It's said to be best to add the light in the morning rather than the evening so that they can go to roost with the natural sunset.

 

[Dhkoenig]

Possible chicken scenario that may or may not be mine: I have raised chickens off and on for years. I started with them as babies from my 80 year old neighbor Lazy J's Poultry in Alexander, AR (He's the best if you live close!) . As long as no predators got them, I did fine with them. Once those were gone, I bought some commercial grown chickens from a commercial hatchery. They were red and most likely Bovan Brown/Hyline Brown's. I did ok with those and had eggs all the time to donate until predators wiped them out. They were cheap--around $6 each. I waited a little to do chickens again and apparently it caused me some bad luck This time around, I purchased grown ones at the Beebe Livestock Auction, Craigslist, Facebook, or wherever. I had over 100 chickens from different places, got Mycoplasma, and had to cull them all. After our quarantine was up (and maybe longer), I went back to the internet and got something like100-130 chickens from the same place. I was getting so few eggs from those 100 chickens that I decided maybe I was lied to about their age so I sell them cheaply: $5 each and then give the roosters away. Then, I lost so much money in chickens that I got commercial red hens again at $5 each to save money. Hyline Brown. They NEVER lay eggs. Can I say they are sick? Not necessarily. They laid around a bunch but I thought it was the heat but they never laid any eggs. N-E-V-E-R. I let my Hispanic neighbor know what's going on and she wants them to eat them so I give away $120 in hens to her to eat. Then, I find out the guy that I bought them from knew that those commercial birds/battered hens had Mycoplasma and was selling them. The state ends up shutting him down. Even though I never took a bird to be tested, I was not taking any chances so I give away all my baby birds to the Hispanic neighbor to eat. I wait another quarantine just in case my birds got any diseases) to get anything else.

Then, once I am sure we don't have any diseases and there are no birds here for months, I get more birds. I order both babies from Ideal Poultry when they had a sale. That was $150. Then, I purchase about 50-70 grown hens at at an Amish Hatchery in Missouri for $7-10 each. The rarer ones were $15 each. Now, I am getting no eggs. As in zero. Not really zero but 0-2 per day out of over 50 hens but most days it is zero. That has been going on for months now. The free range ones are not laying. The ones locked up 24/7 are not laying. It might be because they to a new place which is stressful, they came in the heat which is stressful, they are molting, and then winter is coming. If they didn't lay this summer do the heat, now molting, and won't lay in the winter due to the cold; that puts me at almost 6 months with no eggs yet their food intake isn't declining--it will just go up this winter when the bugs go away. I'm exhausted with trying to raise hens. I'm wondering, if I sale these and switch to babies, will I get eggs through the winter or summer when it's at extreme temperatures. I know that I have to raise them to 6 months but does buying babies every year and selling the older ones work out for any of you cause these birds are costing me tons of money with no eggs and I'm getting tired of it.

I am sorry you have had such a bad experience. That must make you exhausted of it all. If you have it in your heart to continue I would say maybe just try enjoying them for their personalities until you see if they lay in the spring because what you say does make sense. Maybe post some pix of your set-up. I do find my favorite part of having chickens is just observing how different they each are and discovering their personalities and bonding with them. Maybe if you look at it that way til Spring. Then, if it doesn't work out, maybe start next time with like 6-8 hens instead of like 100 etc... Just some suggestions to hopefully put the love of chicken-owning back into you. I guess you have to figure out which part of chicken raising you are doing it for? The eggs or the chickens themselves and then you will know whether it is worth it or just go to the farm market to get eggs.

 

[Geena]

Possible chicken scenario that may or may not be mine: I have raised chickens off and on for years. I started with them as babies from my 80 year old neighbor Lazy J's Poultry in Alexander, AR (He's the best if you live close!) . As long as no predators got them, I did fine with them. Once those were gone, I bought some commercial grown chickens from a commercial hatchery. They were red and most likely Bovan Brown/Hyline Brown's. I did ok with those and had eggs all the time to donate until predators wiped them out. They were cheap--around $6 each. I waited a little to do chickens again and apparently it caused me some bad luck This time around, I purchased grown ones at the Beebe Livestock Auction, Craigslist, Facebook, or wherever. I had over 100 chickens from different places, got Mycoplasma, and had to cull them all. After our quarantine was up (and maybe longer), I went back to the internet and got something like100-130 chickens from the same place. I was getting so few eggs from those 100 chickens that I decided maybe I was lied to about their age so I sell them cheaply: $5 each and then give the roosters away. Then, I lost so much money in chickens that I got commercial red hens again at $5 each to save money. Hyline Brown. They NEVER lay eggs. Can I say they are sick? Not necessarily. They laid around a bunch but I thought it was the heat but they never laid any eggs. N-E-V-E-R. I let my Hispanic neighbor know what's going on and she wants them to eat them so I give away $120 in hens to her to eat. Then, I find out the guy that I bought them from knew that those commercial birds/battered hens had Mycoplasma and was selling them. The state ends up shutting him down. Even though I never took a bird to be tested, I was not taking any chances so I give away all my baby birds to the Hispanic neighbor to eat. I wait another quarantine just in case my birds got any diseases) to get anything else.

Then, once I am sure we don't have any diseases and there are no birds here for months, I get more birds. I order both babies from Ideal Poultry when they had a sale. That was $150. Then, I purchase about 50-70 grown hens at at an Amish Hatchery in Missouri for $7-10 each. The rarer ones were $15 each. Now, I am getting no eggs. As in zero. Not really zero but 0-2 per day out of over 50 hens but most days it is zero. That has been going on for months now. The free range ones are not laying. The ones locked up 24/7 are not laying. It might be because they to a new place which is stressful, they came in the heat which is stressful, they are molting, and then winter is coming. If they didn't lay this summer do the heat, now molting, and won't lay in the winter due to the cold; that puts me at almost 6 months with no eggs yet their food intake isn't declining--it will just go up this winter when the bugs go away. I'm exhausted with trying to raise hens. I'm wondering, if I sale these and switch to babies, will I get eggs through the winter or summer when it's at extreme temperatures. I know that I have to raise them to 6 months but does buying babies every year and selling the older ones work out for any of you cause these birds are costing me tons of money with no eggs and I'm getting tired of it.

My older girls aren't laying much right now either, some are molting, some are just taking a break apparently. I'm only getting 0-1 egg a day from them. My pullets are laying about an egg a day each right now.
I find the best way to get a continuous supply of eggs is to have different age groups going at all times, raising up new pullets each spring, and if you are looking solely for egg production, culling the oldest girls out each fall.
I do wonder why so many chickens at once? The more you have the harder they are to keep an handle on and of course the more they cost to feed as well. I'm not surprised you are exhausted. 20 - 30 pullets should give you more than enough eggs to eat, sell and incubate.

 

[centrarchid]

This chicken production approach is too risky. No concern about housing requirements, biosecurity, nutrition or quality of birds started with. When things go wrong repeatedly, then back off on scope of project until you work out what is causing problems.

 

[Pennysworth]

If they were born on July 19th are they even old enough to lay eggs yet?

 

[NatJ]

If they were born on July 19th are they even old enough to lay eggs yet?

No, the ones hatched on July 19th are not old enough to lay eggs yet.

 

[Pennysworth]

Didnt think so as mine are only 2 months old they were born on Aug 2nd

 

[Dhkoenig]

If they were born on July 19th are they even old enough to lay eggs yet?

I doubt it! Three of ours were hatched on May 15 and three of them May 23, so that puts them at about 19 and 18 weeks - I have read that between 18 weeks to 6 months is the basic first-lay range?? Hatchet on July 19 they would only be 9 weeks old.