This is driving me CRAZY. I have two six month olds who have had super red, super huge combs and wattles for about a MONTH. And STILL no eggs. (I've checked vents/pelvic bones--they're definitely not laying yet.) They're loud and bokbokky, they spend time in the hen house during the day sniffing around ... but this has been going on for about a month too. So all you chicken experts--I keep hearing a week, two weeks after the redness starts. What's the longest it's taken?
Quote:how old? what breed of chicken? got any pics? as much as we try to giess and offer *rough estimates* they lay when they are ready to lay and there isn't much we can do to speed them up
This one is a blue birchen marans, 24 weeks. Her comb and wattles are enormous. The bf is convinced that she's a rooster. He's almost got me convinced at this point. This is her half sister, same age. She's 1/2 blue birchen marans and 1/2 silver laced wyandotte banty. She's a little pinker here than she has been. She's been BRIGHT red.
I have a Brown Leghorn hen who was sexually mature (big red comb, wattles) for an entire month before she started laying. She was the last to start laying of the 3 born mid April of this year, both the RIR and BO started laying first even though she was mature at least 3 weeks before them. She has only missed 2 days since
Maybe you need to increase their protein? I read another post on here along simmilar lines about mature hens that wouldn't lay until their protein was increased. Eggs require a lot of protein to make. On the other hand, my Leghorn Houdini was pretty mature looking for a while , and she was a full month behind her 2 sisters on starting to lay. I didn't change their feed, so maybe it's just in their genes.
My buff orp was red and cackley (is that a word?) for AT LEAST a month before she started laying. I read on another thread someone with your breed that said theirs started laying around 27 weeks.
It's so good to hear that others have experienced this too! I read the threads about protein too, and don't think that's the problem. I have a mix of mature laying/mature molting/point of lay chickens. They're all on layer feed, and I've been giving them all high protein treats for a few weeks to help out the molters. They get treats like yogurt, black oil sunflower seeds, table scraps (including meat) from dinner .... I've heard that marans are late layers too, along with wyandottes. It's just frustrating because I want to see what those eggs look like! The marans came from a 7 or 8 on the marans color chart.
