My hens still aint layin :(

[lizgarf]

I have four 6.5 month old hens who haven't started laying either. Luckily I have one adult red star who is a regular layer, or else I would start to wonder if eggs really came form chickens after all! Except for a dark brahma, the other young ladies are bantam mutts, including a marans, a frizzled cochin, and a blue andalusian/polish cross. Only the last two have significant combs/wattles at this point. Are they just too weird to ever be regular layers? Or is it just November?
I still absolutely love having them, and they're totally adorable! But, I'm also ready for more of the "benefits."

 

[VannahRAe]

That sounds like a good lookin flock! I'm ready for my girls to lay! haha.

 

[DawnB]

I adopted an established flock...they're about a 1-1/2yrs old. They were laying when we got them (mid sept), but the stress of the move and the shortened days threw them off. They still aren't laying.

We added a light about a week ago. We got 1 egg after 2 days and got all excited (but then nuthin'!

). Hopefully we'll see something here in the next week. My husband keeps giving them the "eggs or soup pot" speech...it doesn't seem to phase them.

 

[VannahRAe]

Maybe I should start giving mine that speech! We'll see how that does haha .

 

[jabina]

At least it's not just me -- I read all of these posts about people's chickens laying at 17 weeks, 18 weeks, and I think, heck, it's gotta happen anytime. . . but then days and weeks go by and nothing happens.

 

[DawnB]

Well...I got 1 (count 'em...1) egg today...out of 12 hens. Maybe the soup pot speech is more effective than I thought.

 

[melodym]

It took forever for my RIR hens to start laying. They were a little over 30wks and I was about to give up and hope for next spring, I started talking to the girls everyday and continually changed hay in the coop and now they're laying eggs. I was so happy last week when I went out and we had one egg. Good luck and God bless

 

[featheredmom]

Our chickens were not laying for what seemed like forever, but then we added Sunflower seeds for protein and oystershell for added calcium and BAM they were laying.

When our feed store ran out of oyster shell, our EE quit laying, but when the OS was back in stock the following week, we were back in blue eggs. Strange, but it happens.

We bought cheap plastic golf balls and used some plastic eggs from Easter to put in the nests, worked like a charm.

I will also add that our egg numbers are crazy lately, I blame it on the cold weather. One day last week we got 22 eggs, the next day? 3. day after that? 5. The inconsistency is crazy, but I chalk it all up to temperatures and amount of sunlight.

 

[melodym]

I agree feed seems to make a big difference in our flock. We too added extra protein and last week they started laying; its just funny how we wait and wait for eggs and then when we least expect it they lay. Two days after our first egg nothing!!!! and now we got 8eggs today (this includes other hens).

 

[VannahRAe]

I'm going to try the oyster shell feed. I've changed the hay in their nest boxes every other day.