No eggs.....

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madmadsen22

madmadsen22

In the Brooder
Mar 6, 2017
7
0
25
I bought my chickens last year in March. They are now a year old and have yet to lay a single egg. We have had chickens for years and the year before last a predator got all of them. I got silver laced wyandots, Rhode Island whites, and tan pullets. Nothing from any of them. I don't understand, can anyone help?
 
You would see/feel a soggy mess in the nest boxes if they were eating them. They will often eat the shell but they can't eat all the runny bits that soak into the nesting material, so it's pretty easy to spot if they are eating them, particularly on the scale you are talking about.

4 cockerels with 11 pullets is a bad ratio and that will almost certainly be stressing them, which will reduce egg production. You also don't appear to be certain about those numbers. If there are more males than 4, that makes it even worse.
Another thing that occurs to me is that you say you feed them layer pellets in the afternoon, so I'm assuming they don't have access to feed throughout the day and get nothing to eat in the morning? Particularly in the winter, there is very little for them to forage on whilst ranging and certainly not the high protein feed like insects and grubs that they need to help produce eggs. Layers really need access to their feed (layer pellets) from morning till night. My guess would be that they are only getting enough food to keep them warm and active, with no excess to produce eggs. Layers have to be in good condition to produce eggs. Your birds will be expending the energy they get from the food you give them on an afternoon, keeping warm overnight and foraging for food in the morning.

My suggestion would be to remove at least 3 of the cockerels and give them access to their layer pellets from morning till night and see if things improve.

Also, if you post photos of your birds it might help us figure out how many actually are cockerels and which if any of the pullets look like they might be laying.

Rats can also steal eggs but if they were stealing 5 or 6 eggs a day, it would be blatantly obvious you had a rat problem as you would be tripping over them.

Could a human be coming and helping themselves to your eggs?
 
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Greetings from Kansas, madmadsen22, and
welcome-byc.gif
! Pleased you joined our community! Wow, no eggs? Ever??? Something is certainly wrong. Please provide more information about their diet, living conditions, overall health and demeanor. I know certain predators are egg thieves but I am sure you would have stumbled upon eggs by happen chance by now. If you got them as chicks in March you should have had eggs like gangbusters August or September and on into fall and winter, followed by a winter lull, but by now they should be in full swing again. Something is up. More info please.
 
redsoxs said:
Greetings from Kansas, madmadsen22, and :welcome !  Pleased you joined our community!  Wow, no eggs?  Ever???  Something is certainly wrong.  Please provide more information about their diet, living conditions, overall health and demeanor.  I know certain predators are egg thieves but I am sure you would have stumbled upon eggs by happen chance by now.  If you got them as chicks in March you should have had eggs like gangbusters  August or September and on into fall and winter, followed by a winter lull, but by now they should be in full swing again.  Something is up.  More info please.  
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They are healthy and happy. I just let them loose to free range. I usually feed them layer pellets every afternoon. Living conditions, they have a coop with a hen house, plenty of hay. They seem perfectly normal, that's why I can't figure out them not laying. I thought for a while it was because they were a different breed. The last flock we had were RIR.
 
Oh I forgot we also have a guinea, which we have never had before. I don't think that should really make a difference tho. I think I have 11 hens and 4 roos.
 
I guess two possibilities come to mind for me. As free rangers, could they be laying elsewhere in some secluded spot? Another one is that you have a flock that contains one or more egg eaters. Do you find shell fragments or sticky egg residue in the nesting boxes? Can you confine them to the coop for a few days with adequate food and water? That would rule out laying outside the coop. And if you hear the egg song, high tail it to the coop to catch an egg eater - if that is the case. Other than that, I'm stumped. Others may chime in soon wth ideas.
 
Nope no secluded spot. I have confined them. Still nothing. I considered egg eating, I just haven't seen any shell fragments or any sign at all.
 

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