Recommendation: Need a Chicken Whisperer!

[Henspecked]

Hi Folks,
I live in Portland, OR and am in need of a Chicken Whisperer. I have done all I can think of to get my chickens to lay. But, have been unsuccessful. I have dewormed them, cleaned run and coop, and regularly allow them out into our back yard to peck on grubs and keep them happy. But, they all have decide they will not lay. They are 2.5 years old and two of them have laid only a handful of eggs during that period. Could you recommend anyone that could come over and help us figure out what we may be doing wrong?

Thanks in advance,
Urban Chicks.

 

[sourland]

What breed of chickens do you have? They have never laid? Have you had them their entire lives?

 

[pa2chitown]

Yes, what is the breed? Are they all siblings, from same stock?
Do they crow? Sorry, just kidding.

I hope you find someone to help!

 

[Henspecked]

We have 4 chickens. The Austrailialorpe is 5 years old and has a great excuse for not laying. The other 3, not so much. We have had them since they were chicks. We went through a local farm instead of the Urban Farm Store, which I now think may have been our first mistake. The lady we bought them from said that 2 of them were Delawares and 1 a Light Sussex. The Sussex has been our only regular layer. But, I have had to put her in our basement as she was being pecked to death by the Delawares just 3 weeks ago.
I think the 'Delawares' may be a cross between a Delaware and a Light Sussex as they have some collar feathers that are black and our previous Delaware, that we know is purebred, did not. They all laid intermittently to start with. Then the Delawares just stopped. The only time that I have recently received eggs from them is when I dewormed them. Then the larger of the 2 laid one egg and the smaller one 3 eggs. Both have been over a month and 1/2 with no egg production.
My Sussie was molting and stopped producing then. The towards the end of her molt the 'mean girls' (Delawares) started pecking her until she has an exposed 3" diameter red patch on her back. So, I currently have her in my basement - smells not so good down there at the moment.

Advice??

 

[pa2chitown]

I think the sussex has a good excuse too. Whatever is causing the delawares to be so aggressive would be my focus.
How do the delawares look? Are they thin?

 

[Henspecked]

They could be fatter. They are healthy, alert, and have no messy butts. We have had them on Scratch n Peck feed and have tried to shift them over to pellets, Pay Back and Portland Feed, but they refuse. They are eating the grain out of the Scratch n Peck but ignore the powder, which is primarily fish and serves as the protein. In the past I would sift out these 'fines' and mix them with water or oil to make a substance they could better pick up. But, often found the material untouched. It was taking a lot of time for me to do this process just to try and fail to get them adequate protein. So, then we slowly tried to shift them over to pellets.

Best I can figure they never touched either type of pellet. So after 2 weeks they became pretty scrawny. I would take out a small pan of the Scratch n Peck and leave a large bowl of the pellets. The following day all the grain would be eaten out of the SnP and the pellets look the same. That is where we are today.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Have you tried crumbles? My girls love crumbles i mix it with scratch that but they eat the entire amount i leave out by the end of the day. Mix it with the scratch and peck and see what happens.