No Eggs

[lavacaw]

In early Feb. I bought a pair of bantam cochins. They were supposedly about a year old and were starting to molt when I got them. I put them in their own little coop with run. They have finished molting but the hen has yet to lay an egg. Is there any way to tell if she is going to? Should I just put them in with my big chickens and wait? I really wanted to try hatching a clutch of eggs from them.

 

[feathersnuggles]

You can check the usual things to see if they are almost ready to lay: 1) combs & faces getting much redder 2) squatting when you reach for them 3) pelvic bones, surrounding the vent, have widened apart so that you can comfortably fit two or three fingers between them 4) eating oyster shell 5) interested in the nestboxes.

Give them time, because a molt is hard on them. They have depleted much of their body's protein reserves in growing out all those new feathers and it takes time to rebuild those reserves again for egg-laying. If you want to make it easier on them, give them a little extra high-quality protein treat, every day or two. Not too much, just a handful of something like black oil sunflower seeds, for example.