Only 1 chicken laying out of 4

[CarmelChickenLady]

Hey everyone,

We are at our wits end. By all accounts, our chickens should be laying and only one is. We are renting them through Rent the Chicken and the contact person has just stopped replying to my emails about them not laying even though she has told us repeatedly that they should be laying by now and it will happen any day. We are wondering if we are doing something wrong.

We have a New Hampshire Red that was supposedly laying before she came to us, a silver spangled Hamburg that is just coming into maturity I believe because her comb is just now turning red so I can understand her not laying, a Barred Rock which is the one laying, and a silver laced Wyandotte.

They have a constant supply of food and water and haven’t been without since they reached us on April 27, they have a safe coop, they free range every evening. They have pretty stress free lives I feel like and yet we keep getting told they’ll start soon and nothing. Their coop is in the shade of an evergreen, but they are up at the crack of dawn at 6 am everyday and out until 8 or 9 every night so I don’t believe hours of light is an issue. I was told they were all born in October if that’s matters much.

It’s frustrating because although we plan on buying these specific chickens because we’ve grown quite attached, we are renting for a reason, so that we can be eased into this and so we can have someone there to help us with any questions but they have even anything but available to us. And oh yeah, they said we would have more eggs than we know what to do with. False. It takes me 3 or 4 days to get enough eggs for a 3 egg omelet.

Does anyone have any recommendations or reasons or questions for me? We’d love to hear it! Thank you in advance for your time!

 

[seminolewind]

A fallacy is that chickens lay all year with no breaks. Or start at the same age. The truth is that chickens start laying when they're ready. I've had one go up to 6 months past her supposed laying age. A guestimate is 4-5 months.
Then, chickens take breaks for varying reasons and may not all take a break together. They seem to lay really good for a stretch once or twice a year and drop off for a while.
Light, diet, free range, low stress, etc increases your chances of having eggs but it's not a guarantee. If you have 3 chickens chances are you are not going to get 3 eggs a day. I personally would stop renting and buy some chicks!!!

 

[CarmelChickenLady]

A fallacy is that chickens lay all year with no breaks. Or start at the same age. The truth is that chickens start laying when they're ready. I've had one go up to 6 months past her supposed laying age. A guestimate is 4-5 months.
Then, chickens take breaks for varying reasons and may not all take a break together. They seem to lay really good for a stretch once or twice a year and drop off for a while.
Light, diet, free range, low stress, etc increases your chances of having eggs but it's not a guarantee. If you have 3 chickens chances are you are not going to get 3 eggs a day. I personally would stop renting and buy some chicks!!!

Thank you so much for replying, fellow Hoosier! I feel better knowing that it may be nothing that I’m doing since this lady has been adamantly telling me that they’ll start any day now for months. My red is doing the squat so hopefully she’ll be starting soon (even though we were assured that she was already laying). Unfortunately, we are under the renting contract until November, which is frustrating because we are not even getting the support we should be and we aren’t even using the tractor coop that comes with program because that was a tad too much poop in our backyard with 3 dogs and 2 kids running around. I’m very excited to have found this community of support to get us through this learning process!

 

[seminolewind]

I have never ever heard of a rent a chicken contract! Hi Hoosier!
No one can tell the future of a hen-like when she starts laying. We can all guess and hope that the "squat" says it will be soon now.

If you don't use the tractor much , just make sure they are super secure at night.