Red combs and wattles but no eggs!

[SparksNV]

2 of my 6 are laying. Today my daughter found the 2 that are laying in the same next box at the same time. We usually get one egg in the morning and one in the afternoon but today we got two at the same time. Some days though we just get one egg. Can't wait til we bump that number up!

But it felt like forever before the egg fairy blessed us with that first egg (on 11/2/10!)

waiting...carol

 

[wrybread]

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Haha!! I hope you have video!

 

[Kittymomma]

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X2!

If they are really red I'd bet they have a nest or two somewhere. I'm in the same boat, my replacement girls are all laying but not in the nest boxes. Our steers kept knocking down the fence to the run so I haven't been able to move them out there and do the two week lockdown to teach them where home and nests are. The steers are at the butcher now and my project this weekend is to fix and cover the run so hopefully I'll have them moved in and in lockdown by Sunday and start getting some eggs. The older girls are molting so picking have been slim around here.

 

[wrybread]

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Bwaack!! Who has time to scour an acre of woods??!!

If keeping them in lockdown produces eggs in the nesting box, I think I'll just pretend that that the first one I find is the 'first one'!

 

[plantmgr]

having the same issues here. I supposed I should "ground" mine too if I ever want to see an egg. I do have some combs that are red on my EEs. I would attach a picture, but I can't figure out how. Instructions would be great.

 

[gritsar]

Grounding them to the coop until they lay is your best bet. My adult birds were on lockdown at the same time as they started laying, because we had just moved them to their permanent coop. Never once have I had to do an easter egg hunt. I've seen the girls running from acres away just to make it back to the coop in time.

 

[gryeyes]

I have 8 different "coop" buildings, 8 laying hens and a few pullets just starting to lay. The younger girls have been test laying in different coops! One of the coops houses 7 young birds, 5 of which are pullets and they're not yet laying. Yet, every day I find an egg in that coop nest box. Two eggs yesterday.

I have seen pullets I know are laying go visiting into the various coops throughout the day. (I've been on vacation for the past couple of weeks.) I just think it's funny that they're not necessarily laying in the coop in which they sleep at night.

The A-Frame coop has always been the nest coop, but nobody sleeps in it. (Well, sometimes the ducks tuck into the bottom, penned section at night...) Buffy brooded eggs and hatched my first GrandChick in that coop. Shirley brooded eggs and hatched chicks in the large kitty litter nest box on the floor of the "main" coop. Today was the first day somebody laid an egg in there since I started taking "new" eggs out from under Shirley, on September 18th. Her chicks hatched Oct. 4th.

The only "ground" layer I've got is Thelma the Cayuga duck. All the chickens lay in one or another coop, always in a nest box except for ONE pullet who lays in the corner of the coop in which she sleeps at night. No eggs have shown up in that coop's nest boxes, despite the golf balls hinting at their purpose. But two mature hens and one pullet who do NOT sleep there have been making daily trips up the ladder into that coop. I think they're trying to decided if it's a better place than the nest box they're already using....

It's an Easter egg hunt without searching all over the property.

 

[plantmgr]

I'm trying the "grounding" today to see if anyone will lay an egg. Not sure if they are yet, but I'm worried the timber might be concealing eggs. I'm sure the chickens are not happy about it, but if I come home to eggs - I will be happy!!!

 

[Kittymomma]

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It might take a couple of days to be sure, and probably at least a week before you can trust them to go back to the coop to lay. I lock mine down for two weeks when they move into the "big house" and most of them will use the nest boxes reliably even if they hadn't started laying by the time lockdown ended. I think it's because I have older girls too and since they lay in the boxes (except for two stubborn ones that like the barn) the youngsters see them and follow suit.

 

[plantmgr]

6 of my 25 did not come in last night. I looked everywhere. Thought they were goners. This morning, 5 of them were in my yard. I corralled 2 of them back into the pen, but didn't have time to get the other 3 before I left for work. One of them is still MIA. I think she's coyote chow. Probably why the others hid so long - I'm guessing they had been chased into hiding. I'm bummed. Not going to be able to let them free range anymore.

Grounding them for life now!