I have four hens; two isa brown and two arakauna. isa brown are 4 mo. old and the arakauna's are about 1 year old. i got the isa's from my aunt who raises them for eggs and bought the two arakauna's from a kid via craigslist after a third isa got turned into a pile of feathers by a neighborhood cat. all is well with the coop. they have permanent water and food available 24/7 and have about 20 sq. ft. outside and 20 sq. ft. inside with multi-levels inside. i live in a detroit suburb and there aren't feed stores around so i started them out on a mix from a exotic bird store and fed veggie table scraps. whenever i mow the lawn or weed the garden, i toss the weeds in for them to peck at. i just bought a 50 lb. bag of proper hen feed and they've transitioned fine to the different feed. before they had pretty much cracked corn and hemp seeds and oatmeal. there are three different dark boxes inside for them. i can't have a rooster, the neighbors are already nice about the hens and my beehive, so i'm not going to push it with crowing. so, the arakauna's haven't laid any eggs yet. i've had them for almost 2 months now and they ought to be about a year old. is there something i'm missing? any tips?
I can understand your frustration. I have ten hens, who will be 9 months old on July 1st. They have been laying just fine for the past five months, but in the last two weeks, we have gotten only 2-3 eggs a day. It is very warm and humid here, and I had to wonder if that is the reason. The hens have two large pens that they share with 7 three month old pullets. There is plenty of layer feed and scratch grains, as well as oyster shell available all the time, and get lots of veggie scraps and I give them a bit of bread each day. I also pull grass that I throw over the fence to them to let them enjoy. I always make sure they get plenty of fresh water each day Can some of you experienced chicken owners out there give me a reason the chickens are not laying right now? How long until I can expect egg production to pick up? Thanks much for any responses!
