My Hens are Broken -_-

[kierstog]

My hens are 7 months old and still no sign of eggs. From ANY of them. Are they broken?! I would think that at least one of them would have started laying!
I have a Plymouth Barred Rock, Light Brahma, Black Copper Marans, Silver Laced Cochin, 2 Speckled Sussex, and 2 Wellsummers.
Is there anything that I can do to help or encourage them to lay? We are tired of buying eggs from the store

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Are they on later pellets/crumble? So you give them oyster shell?

 

[kierstog]

Are they on later pellets/crumble? So you give them oyster shell?

They are on layer pellets and I have oyster shell available to them in the run

 

[imnukensc]

Do you free range? If so, you may have eggs in places you don't know about.

 

[kierstog]

Do you free range? If so, you may have eggs in places you don't know about.

Nope, we don't free range

 

[azygous]

December is the month with the shortest days of the year. It's also the vernal equinox toward the end, so the days will then begin to get longer. Once the daylight reaches around 12 hours, maybe just before, you should see some action from those slackers.

 

[song of joy]

I feel your pain. I have several 8-month-old pullets who are not laying either.

I'm not surprised your brahmas, cochins and welsummers are not laying yet, as those breeds tend to be rather slow to develop. I've heard brahams and cochins begin laying later - around 8 to 10 months of age.

Many people provide supplemental light to encourage laying. You should be able to find some advice on BYC about how to do this if you're interested.

In the absence of supplemental light, it's very likely they'll begin laying when the day length starts to increase (after the winter solstice). I usually see egg production pick up dramatically, beginning in early January.

 

[staceyj]

I see you're in the SC upstate.
I'm in SE NC.
My chickens are currently on winter hiatus for the most part.
The days have just been too short the past few weeks for egg production.
Things might look up for you soon after the winter solstice and the days lengthen again.

 

[driver]

My five are also 7 months. One has been laying for 6 weeks, and one just started this week. The other three haven't started yet.

 

[ChickenGeek_101]

Usually hens that are hatched around March, April, and May don't start laying until the next spring.