New chickens, no eggs.

[DVDJ65]

Well, we came home to a disaster the other night. Our weimaraner, Emma, escaped the house and killed 3 of our best ladies while they were free ranging, needless to say my 3 youngest children were devastated, as was the wife, so I found someone who was trying to get rid of his New Hampshire Reds and I brought them home. Well it has been a week now and they have yet to lay the first egg. They are not molting, they will be a year old on the 18th of this month, and they do not appear to be stressed. I feed them Dumor poultry layer 16% will some cracked corn in it ( same thing the 3 others had been eating ) they get fresh water everyday and are free to roam the pen until they have been here a while longer (Emma, the villain, is now incarcerated in an electrified fence) does anyone have any ideas? Im thinking its because they are in a new place and maybe they didn't eat the same diet I have them on now. could that be it?

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Even if they don't seem stressed, the "stress" of moving may keep them from laying for at least a couple of weeks...

 

[Momagain1]

Ditto...my chickens even get "stressed" when we move something in their coop...silly birds!

 

[DVDJ65]

Thanks, that was kind of my thinking but like I said they dont seem stressed but who knows what goes on inside the mind of a chicken.... besides the obvious

 

[Hucklekree]

I have to agree with the first two. Give them another week

though nice to have around they aren't the smartest things around and if they were used to one farm their entire lives it will take them awhile to adjust. Another though did you clean the area where the chickens died? Sometimes animals can pick up on previous death and that can, obviously, stress them.

 

[sourland]

Yay Chicks! :

Even if they don't seem stressed, the "stress" of moving may keep them from laying for at least a couple of weeks...

Absolute truth. Chickens hate change. It is likely that the move will throw them into a molt unless they have already molted this year.​

 

[Kaeta44]

I agree, they're just settling down after the move. Give them time and nature will take its course and they'll start laying again.

http://muckycluckers.blogspot.com/

 

[DVDJ65]

As for cleaning up where the other ladies met their demise, yes I did and it was a good distance from the coop and pen area, maybe the survivors told them the story, oh and another funny thing, at least to me, I added 2 red stars to the mix and 1 imparticular one was being harassed by the others to no end, so she ought to be the one who's stressed right? well nope, she flies up into the chick hutch, makes a nest, and lays an egg. she has only been here 2 days. Go figure!!!

 

[Jeffross1968]

Quote:
New, already laying birds can have a couple "in the pipe" when you introduce them. Quite often, they will lay those one or two eggs and then stop due to the stress. It doesn't happen all the time, but out of all the laying age chickens I've had to move, or purchased and introduced to the flock, only one ever continued to lay without a break. All the others stopped for at least a week or two, some longer.

 

[kittym77]

This gives me hope for the chickens I sort of 'inherited' about 10 days ago. I wanted a few young buffs, but got 7 big white chickens (Cornish?) Some have bands on their wings (again - ???) and they were supposedly laying before I got them. I can't really tell boys from girls yet - I haven't had a chicken since I was about 12 yrs old...a LOOOONG time ago!
I got ONE egg 5 days ago, when they had been here 5 days.
They did come from a very small, strictly indoor (dusty) coop with a lot of other chickens and a goose, and they were missing lots of feathers. The feathers are beginning to grow back, but they also have the black spots on the combs (pox?)