Older speckled sussex hen

[bigz1983]

Hey everyone,
Last fall my girlfriend told me she wanted a speckled Sussex hen.
So I found a guy that had one for $10 and he told me she was a year old.
Well me being a newbie to chickens I didn't realize she had scaly leg mites and after I brought the hen home my girlfriend noticed it.
We treated her for scaly leg mites and she has healed up over the winter/spring.
She didn't leg eggs when we first brought her home last fall and we figured that after she got adjusted to the flock and treated her scaly leg mites she would eventually resume laying eggs.
Its spring now and her combs waddles are bright red.
Legs look good now and she is fully adjusted to the flock and our rooster mates with her but she still doesn't lay eggs.
She will get into the nest box and sit on the eggs acting like she is going to lay or go broody and then nothing.
I know she doesn't lay eggs because I put her in a small coop alone for a week and no eggs.
Is it possible she is older than a year and wants to act like the young laying hens but has nothing in her?

 

[azygous]

Can you post a photo of this hen? Do a full body shot from the side. Use the "full image" button instead of the "thumbnail" size. We might be able to tell you if she's actually a year old or much older.

Next, chick her pelvic bones by laying two finger in the space where her cloaca is. The bony knobs on either side is where you want to measure. If the knobs are two finger spaces apart, she's ready to lay.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

I had a similar situation with a speckled sussex when I first got chickens, she never laid an egg in the 4 years we had her. But she was so sweet and we really enjoyed her. When she was toward the end of her life (turned out she was really old when we got her) the other hens started to give her a little trouble, so I would let her stay out front alone while I put the others up (when we let them graze the empty lot next door). One day, after putting everyone everyone else away, I went back to get her and she had crossed the street and had made her way through most of the empty lot across the street, headed at a trot for the next street over. I think she was running away from home. LOL She finally passed after having a great and spoiled life. We miss her.

 

[featherhead007]

Never know from runaway hens!

 

[bigz1983]

 

[bigz1983]

 

[bigz1983]

 

[bigz1983]

 

[azygous]

She may just be as young as he said she was. I would guess between one and two years.

 

[Hensndoes]

She is very nicely mottled so I believe she's been through a few molts = much older than a year. She also has spurs which tells me her lady parts retired. If she was laying eggs and you moved her to new digs that could cause a vaca. But I'm thinking her days are behind her.