My ladies don't lay any eggs!!

[keylan]

Hi everyone. Firstly let me say what a joy it is to have chickens!!! I bought a chicken for my family right at Thanks Giving and we immediately fell in love with her (Nugget). The next day we got another, much younger one, (Beaks).



My concern is as follows:

We feed our birds some general chicken feed from our local feed store and always provide fresh water when needed or change daily if dirty. Since T'giving we have gotten 1 egg from Nugget. Beaks is only about 3-5 weeks old and we understand she may be much too young to lay, but Nugget has already proven that she is able to

that being said, I am concerned she may be egg bound?



Is it characteristic for Chx to just stop laying, perhaps at certain times of the year? Should I change their diet? She is not molting, and seems to be in very good health. I have read all that i can find about healthy living and care for these birds and want to provide to them the best home that i can, but i cannot find anything that best describes my situation.

If it helps, I am not 100% certain what breed Nugget is, but i have narrowed it down to either a Catalana or a New Hampshire Red. Picture included for reference

Please let me know any tricks/hints for keeping healthy, happy, productive birds.



Many thanks,

Keylan

 

[Tala]

She looks like a red sexlink to me.

A lot of times they don't lay very much in the wintertime because of the short days. Mine has laid less, although she's still laying.
If she were eggbound, she'd get sick pretty quickly as she became infected.

You said "general" chicken food. Do you mean layer feed? Or just scratch grains???
Chickens won't have enough protein to make an egg if they don't get enough in their daily feed (16% is what most layer feeds provide)

 

[keylan]

Quote:
Ok. I hung a light in the coop and have been turning it on around dusk or just before to lengthen their day. The feed (i'll get more info from the bag in the morning) is grainy bland colored feed, probably just scratch. You say they are only getting 16% of their protein needs from this?!! YIKES! I feel like a bad parent now

any dietary suggestions?

 

[Minniechickmama]

What Tala means is they need a feed that is 16% protein for laying. Layena or an egg mash from your local feed store would be a good one. There are things you can add to it later if it still doesn't seem to be enough, but for now, the layer needs the right feed to have the protein to make her eggs.

 

[keylan]

awesome info folks! I will look into this tomorrow!

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

Most scratch feed contains a lot of cracked corn and is very yellow...
Terry in TN

 

[JimWWhite]

Make sure she gets some greens. Lettuce, cabbage, kale, mustard, collards, anything green and leafy. We have 19 Gold Comet pullets, all under a year old which is what your hen appears to be. They get some sort of greens almost every day that are castoffs from our salads, etc. We get an average of 18 eggs a day each and every day. The Gold Comets are also known as Red Sex Links and they are the best layers you can get. Like the others have written earlier give her layer crumbles or pellets. Mine get pellets. Here in the Carolinas we got some pretty nasty cold weather over the past three weeks so we made sure our Gals got a little extra by mixing some powered milk, hot water, and a little sugar with their pellets in a pitcher and we pour that out in a big saucer in the run. It makes about a quart and a half or so. They go at it like Piranhas. It's gives them a little extra for those cold nights plus some extra calcium for the shells.

Also, I see you also wrote that you added a light to your coop. We don't do that, even in the winter. Chickens have a fixed number of ovas and when they're gone, well they're not much good for anything except the stew pot or pets. I strongly recommend not pushing them. If it's not time for them to lay then it's not time. When they're spent, they're spent...

Hope this helps!

 

[HEChicken]

I have a little good news for you. If you got Beaks the day after Thanksgiving, even if she was only a day old chick at the time, she is 8 weeks old now, not 3-5 weeks! And, if she was any older than a day old chick then, well, she is even closer to being laying age now - possible 9-10 weeks!

 

[cluckin_crazy]

I think she looks a lot like my Cinnamon Queen.. Here is a pic - http://brittneyschiff.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/010.jpg

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
Jim, I'd steer away from the powdered milk if I were you. My understanding is that chooks lack the ability to properly digest milk products (except for yogurt, which apparently is somewhat digestible to them). Others can chime in and correct me if I am wrong, or explain better why this is so.