no eggs, different shaped combs and many other questions

[MollyDora]

Hello everybody,

I am very new to chicken keeping and other then the welcome thread this is my first post.

Our flock of 5 consists of 3 Salmon Faverolles (supposodly from last season) and 2 Ameracaunas that are now 6 weeks old.
the 3 big ones have not yet laid an egg and we're starting to wonder.
One of our Questions are, is it normal for the hens to have different shape combs? 2 of the hens have small combs and the 3rd one has a very large, full looking comb, (It's hard to describe, but looking at the 3rd one it almost seems like the 2 are shrunken or missing something) Is this normal??
Other then that they seem very healthy, eat, drink, POOP!, follow us around and eat worms from our hands, which is adorable.

I'm not sure as to why, but it seems that one of them has diarreha? is this possible, I keep finding poops that are light brown, fluid, but also have that white stuff on them.

well all in all we're not very sure if these hens are really just from last season, we're starting to wonder if maybe they are much older??

well, my questions are: why are they not laying? and is it normal for the comb to be different size?

Please tell me what you need to know, like I said I'm very new to this.

Thank you so much,
Anna

 

[MollyDora]

also one thing I've noticed looking at pictures of the salmon faverolles online is that in the pic's they have those very bushy feathered cheeks and our hens don't seem to have those, it's almost like they are missing feathers.
is it at all possible that they are molting?

I thought I'd add some pictures of them, in hope that it might help. these pics were taken the day we brought them home, sadly I don't have a good picture of the one with the big comb.

 

[Danielle27]

how old are your older hens?

 

[MollyDora]

we don't know. They guy we bought them from said they are from last season? that's all I know

 

[MollyDora]

anybody any ideas? we love our chickens and what to make sure we're doing everything right and that they are happy and healthy.

 

[Danielle27]

How long have you had them. I know it can take a while for them to get comfortable enough to start laying again. They sure are beautiful. I wish I had more info for you. Hopefully someone more experienced will share their knowledge.

 

[MollyDora]

thank you, actually the one with the very full comb did lay an egg today, a very beautiful medium sized light brown egg! I made sure to say Thank you.

We've only had them for 2 weeks, but I'm still a little concerned about the fact that they don't have that breed specific beard. I'm also hoping to get some more feedback, but thank you for yours!!

 

[okallthis4eggs]

The chickens without the full combs are probably too young to lay eggs. As they grow older their combs will grow full and they will lay. The chicken with the full comb is probably older.

 

[MollyDora]

awesome! thank you!! it's so hard to tell as they all seem to be same age/size. But good to know.

 

[MollyDora]

so the update on my chickens is this.

In the picture attached to this post, we have big momma in the front, she seems to have adopted the two easter egger chicks and from my understanding is not laying because of this, the one on the right, is Lucy, she lays an egg a day and in the back (looking straight at the camera) is Sue, we do not understand why Sue is not laying... we have had all 3 for over 5 weeks now and they do well.
well and the little one on the right is one of the easter eggers. (the other easter egger you can barely tell is on the picture, you can;t see it's head but it's body is right by the 3 big ones)

we let them freerange for several hours during the day and for the rest of the day they are in an 8'x10' enclosure that has their coop on it. they have oyster shells available.

Anybody any tips on what to do to get her to lay? we're starting to get a little worried.

thank you
Anna