I am sick of waiting... is there anyway to speed things up? (UPDATE)

[originalcloudtown]

K, so quick back story...

I decided to raise chickens this year out at my parents old 10 acre hobby farmstead that has only had lawn ornament horses (they are 20+ yrs old and never been broke) and barn cats coming out of the wood work.

I cleaned out the old coup, patched up the holes the pheasants my dad raised 4+/- years ago got out from and researched what the best chickens for us were.

On March 30th, 103 straight run puffy little Buff Orpingtons arrived peeping and cheeping up a storm. I wanted a good dual bird that would neither attack my kids or run head long into the walls when the 4 yr old boy decided that petting them was cool.

They are great birds. The issue became the fact that by mid June the 92 birds that made it past puff ball stage were eating all the weeds from my garden that we tossed in, grass clippings AND over 3, 50 pound bags of feed each week. They were getting to be costing WAY too much to justify keeping. So, even though they were not as big as I would have liked, we called the butcher and hauled 60 of the small-medium sized birds in to meet my freezer.

The remaining birds are now seeming content in their home with more room to run and fewer roosters to contend with and I am starting to get really ready for some of the farm fresh eggs that I have been dreaming of since I came up with this brilliant idea a year ago.

Of the 32 remaining birds, 24 are hens, the rest are roosters. They seem to have separated into 2 main 'packs' if you will. There are 2 main roosters in the bunch and each seems to have about 1/2 the hens and a couple stray roosters that follow them. If one "pack" is in the coup, the other will be outside and vise versa.

Some of my hens are starting to get washed out looking... They are loosing the great dark golden color they did have and getting more of a light tan color. Their tiny combs seem to also be getting paler, but that could just be my imagination playing tricks on me.

Every now and then I will hear a hen making all sorts of noise and I get excited thinking that I will have my first egg and sadly, it is just a hen making noise for no reason

What I really need to know is when the heck am I going to start getting to eat the eggs I have been waiting for????

Thanks for your help,
Malinda

 

[jvls1942]

6 months old, maybe more.. end of sept

 

[mtnhomechick]

My BO started laying at 16 weeks. She was the first to lay.

 

[ipf]

Two thing scome to mind. Parasites? Is it possible they have mites? Have you checked? THat can make them washed out-looking.

You say half the flock is outside - is this outside in a caged run, or outside and free ranging? If the latter, they may be hiding their eggs.

Or they may just not have started yet. Six months is a reasonable age, particularly for pure breeds.

 

[originalcloudtown]

Quote:
I havent thought to look for mites, I did grab my one rooster and check him out the other day because his comb is very large and seems to be turning purple at the very end (it is super thick and HUGE) my mom, who has done all of this before said that it happens and is normal if the rooster has a huge comb. When I was messing with him I didnt notice any mites. I will grab one of the washed out hens next time I am out there and check. My dad said something about them getting ready to molt and that may be the reason they are looking washed out.

As far as inside and out, I have a fully enclosed coup/run. We have a fox that visits our area every few years, and I am not about to pay to feed the dang thing. The inside coup is 10x12 or better and outside is at least 2 times as big. I am trying to figure out how to extend my outside run so that I can close off part of it at a time so it will regrow. My boyfriend saw our fox friend the other day when the kids were learning how to hit golf balls with grandpa in the back pasture. Shawn (my bf) went running to retrieve the balls and scared up a black fox that was hiding under one of the little pine trees in the pasture. If not for that little fox, I would let them just free range all over the yard to help with bug control, but sadly, we also have a very large hawk that likes to steal our baby kittens and such so letting the birds just run is not an option. All the chickens have access to all parts at all times. It just seems that when one set is outside, the other is inside and they seem to just avoid each other. It has been hot here the last few days so my dad put my fan back into the coup to help with air flow. I am not sure if the birds like it, but it does seem to cool it down in there.

My mom had a mess of bantams a few years back and it took my dad a while to figure out what was getting them. He would find a part here and there but never could tell if it was a fox, skunk or hawk. Then one day he found a dead chicken on top of a shed, at that point we knew a hawk was getting them. They still have 1 bantam left from that pack. He is a black little thing that seems to control the cats... during the summer he learned that they feed the cats on the porch and started sneaking up there to steal the cat food. then when winter came that little rooster decided that the heated cat house on the porch was the place to live and he proceeded to kick all the cats out so he could stay in it. My poor dad had to go out to the barn and haul up Blacky's heated box and stick that on the porch just so that the cats had a warm place to sleep.

I keep thinking I should take the smallest of my BOs and let her loose so that Blacky has a friend, but I just dont want that golden hen to become fox/hawk food. That black is hard to see but get a gold colored bird out there and it is like an invite for every critter in the area to come a running for a free meal.

Maybe I can find someone in central MN with a dark colored bantam hen for our lonely little guy. mmm, who knows... just a thought.


Anyhow... I will just keep waiting and hoping for eggs.

Thanks for the info on the mites, I will look into that.

And thank you on the timeline for my eggs. I have 200 egg cartons just waiting for some fresh eggs

(my man drives semi and delivered some place that makes egg cartons. I am not sure what he paid for the stack of cartons, but he was so proud of himself when he brought me home cartons for all the eggs I was going to have... now I just need the eggs. Dang birds not holding up their end of the deal...lol)

 

[ERnoleGuy]

Dang those birds. Some chickens just don't understand the rules: I feed you. You make me breakfast!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

A lot of the brands of layer feed say to begin feeding it to your pullets at 18 weeks. I begin looking for eggs at 20 weeks, but my pullets usually begin laying more around 22-24 weeks of age. I don't keep really careful records of when each hen begins to lay, but that's my best guess. Someone told me their Buff Orps began laying late, around 6 months or so, but then they expected them to continue laying longer.

The very best way to get your hens to begin to lay is to drive somewhere very far and buy the most expensive gourmet organic eggs you can find from free-ranged nest-laying cage-free heritage-breed hens hand gathered by Trappist monks living in seclusion on some pristine mountaintop under vows of silence and promises to think only happy thoughts.

Upon your return you'll find your hens have each laid a double-yolked egg in your driveway, all of which you ran over as you parked your vehicle.

 

[Rocky Top Chick]

My BO's were hatched on March 15th and they have not given me any eggs either. But on the brighter side 5 of my other breeds have been laying a couple of weeks. I guess the BO's are just a little later.

 

[catfish/okie]

Mine hatched April 8 no eggs here either. But I love em anyway.

 

[Suziers]

My hens are 22 weeks. My Austrolorpe started laying yesterday. My others (2 BO's included) have no started laying yet.