Older hens?

[BelleintheCastle]

Soooo I bought two "two-year old" hens at 10 bucks a pop. Now, two weeks later, I've not had a single egg. The Silkie has not laid a SINGLE egg. And my Leghorn EATS hers. I've tried adding balls and more balls and fake eggs. They also came with scaly leg mites, which has been such a joy... I can't believe I'm such a sucker. I do NOT need more useless chickens. I have enough of those! Anywho, I've been working the scaly mites... one down, one to go! It would be NICE if they'd lay some eggs - that they didn't then EAT- for all the trouble I'm going through! Sigh.

...Help?

 

[Lor]

Oh no...
I guess they need a little more time to acclimate to the new surroundings? Don't know how to stop an egg eater.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I'm surprised thr leghorn is purposefully eating eggs. Mine will peck and eat any that are brittle enough to crack, but they never peck them hard enough to crack.

As for the silkie, they don't always lay a lot anyways

 

[CoopBoots]

I'm so sorry, I'd be angry too! I also learned the hard way you don't always get full disclosure from other owners. My roo had a pretty awful case of scaly leg mites and he was a pet in his former life. I guess they just never realized he wasn't supposed to have feet like that?!

Anyway, for your egg eater, it isn't an easy problem to solve and you definitely don't want her teaching anyone else. I've read you can carefully empty an egg and refill with something gross tasting but harmless, and do that a while until they decide it isn't worth the risk. I've never tried it myself but I would before I moved on to other options. I'd probably keep her separate while I was attempting to retrain her though.

 

[BelleintheCastle]

I do have her separated. The Silkie hasn't laid a single egg, so I'm gonna put my two Inept Chickens together and see if I can fix this with some extra feed, some quarantine time, and some extra calcium!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Silkies aren't great layers as it is, and stress from being rehomed and poor health (the leg mites) are probably adding on to her not laying.

The leghorn may have been sold specifically because she's a known egg eater. You could try rollaway nests.