My golden comets still aren't laying.

[M3lly08]

Hi all! I'm new here. Everything I've read on golden comets, they start laying at 16-18 weeks. Well, ours are almost 7 months, and NO EGGS YET they have squatted, rearranged hay in the nesting boxes, but no eggs. Just wondering if anyone else had dealt with this, or experienced late layers with golden comets. I appreciated any advice. This is our first year having chickens, we have 9 girls.

 

[Outpost JWB]

WELCOME TO BYC!!!! I have an armful of golden comets myself and love them. They are not the cuddliest breed, but they lay good. A few questions for you.

What are you feeding your chickens?

Is the weather cold/cool where you are?

Do you have a light in your coop?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Hi all! I'm new here. Everything I've read on golden comets, they start laying at 16-18 weeks. Well, ours are almost 7 months, and NO EGGS YET

they have squatted, rearranged hay in the nesting boxes, but no eggs. Just wondering if anyone else had dealt with this, or experienced late layers with golden comets. I appreciated any advice. This is our first year having chickens, we have 9 girls.

Where are you located? With birds who are reaching the probably age of production later in the year you can see a delay because of the shortened hours of daylight available to them at the critical time that would normally be when laying is triggered.

Can you post some pictures of your flock? This will give us a chance to see for ourselves the various signs of physical maturity and readiness to lay that your birds may or may not be showing.

 

[M3lly08]

Thanks for getting back with me Outpost JWB and Ol Grey Mare.

We are feeding our chickens purina flock feed right now, along with various scraps. And we have a 5 gallon bucket with the nipples, so they are getting plenty of clean water. We let them free range for 3 hours in the evening every day as well. We are in Georgia and it was in the 80's today, the weather is bi-polar here though. It hasn't gotten too cold yet. No lamp in the coop. It is getting dark around 7 now, but when they were around 18 weeks it wasn't getting dark until much later. I don't really know what to expect other than what i've read as I've mentioned this is our first year

 

[M3lly08]

I posted some pics and answered all questions in my previous post. They are very plump girls

 

[Outpost JWB]

They are beautiful. I feed ours layer pellets. If I feed them too many scraps, they will not lay. They also free range daily when I get home from work. I think another issue may be that you were told 16-18 weeks, and I would say it's more like 20 weeks or so. Just give them time. Do you have nesting boxes set up for them? If not, now is a good time to get that done

 

[B-Goock]

It looks like they are getting close to laying age by the look of their waddles and comb.
Seems to me when their waddles and combs get to full size and bright red is usually when they start laying. They do look healthy.

Do yours do the squat and shuffle their feet when you walk up to them or put your hand over them? When they do that then they are ready.

 

[Simplebeauty1]

I posted some pics and answered all questions in my previous post. They are very plump girls

Hi, when did your chickens finally start laying?

 

[-Flash-]

Hi, when did your chickens finally start laying?

And this thread is 7 years old, also the OP hasn't been seen for 6 years!