hello, and thank you for any help/advice you can give. We have been reading several of the posts on here to answer a lot of our questions and help in many ways. But we are still having issues with a large percentage of our chickens that are not laying eggs.
First off we have different ages of chickens. We have 15 black star and 10 other younger chickens of different breeds. Two of the younger ones have started laying just a week or so ago and are laying regularly. The other 8 are soon to start. But our issue is with the older black stars. They are approx 14mo old. 3 of them are laying and laying well but nothing from the rest of them. They are eating very well, have plenty of feed and water every day. I will try to provide as much information as i can but if i have forgoten to post something important please ask.
feed given is a layer feed from tsc or rural king. We started out with the cheaper brand ($12 for 50lb), yellow bags and started out on the crumbles, they just scratched all around it and kicked it around, wasted much more than they ate. We changed to pellets, much better, eat it better and went from one laying to 2. We changed brands again, kept with the pellets but went to the purina brand. Now have 3 laying. We also add scaps and other food to their daily diet as mentioned in several of these post. Attitude at feeding, they are very excited when we walk out to their area, always think there getting something special, they just swarm us, we have one self feeder in the coop, we also have two troughs in there as well they can eat there pellets from anytime. then give "snacks" 1 or 2 times throughout the day. They always think there getting something special
Coop- there coop is 9x9x9 with a slanted roof down to 4 feet on the back side. Inside the coop there is a levered and self supported roost that is 7 feet wide 6 feet tall and has 6 rows, plenty of room for all 25 of them to sleep comfortable at night, there is also a second roost is an opposite angle on the back side built for the little ones but they have since gone to the big roost now. There are 12 boxes total, 6 on each side with straw/hay. that is the best for their boxes, we tried chips, hay, straw, the mix of straw and hay they seem to like the best. it is built with a standard size storm door with an all window door facing the east, there is a big window on the west side that allows light in as well. coop is well lit. The laying boxes we have also noticed that if we cover them up with the feed bags so the chickens are covered while they lay, they like that better, one started laying after we did that, but still 3 total from the 15. we have the boxes off to the side so no feces is ever in the boxes, they also dont defecate in there as well, they are clean and we clean them out regularly. We also clean the coop out regularly. door leading outside to a large area fenced in with dirt and grass, there is also a leanto built to shade them from the sun while there outside, it is just about 3-4 foot tall and is 9x12. under the tarp we keep pile of limestone dust, and sand that they can eat when needed. we also have D earth pile that they can lay in and dust them selves. there are a few small holes out there where they can lay in as well. All of which the do all thought out the day.
predators- there is nothing that bothers them, we have seen no hawks and there fenced area is very secure, nothing in our out, we also have dogs out in the yard so nothing ever goes near them. the dogs do well with them, dont go up to bother them, one of them goes underneath the coop ever so often but thats it. even if he goes up to the screen gate/door to there outside area, they will stay right there at the door.
some of the black stars are considerable larger than the ones that are laying also, but none of them sit on eggs, we have checked all through out the day and never see that. Egg eater, we had one, got rid of it, continued to test them the next week just to make sure one didnt pick up the habbit, no issues at all, was just that one. that incident was 2 months ago.
insects- none we check them often, clean coop regular.
Rooster- we have one, does not go after them like others we have had. he is calm and sits and lets the hens eat and does not bully them around at feeding time.
sorry for the excesive post but figured i could give as much info that i could think of
thank you again for your time and hope to get some advise
forgot to mention couple other things,
location we live in east central indiana
also the coop has a roof vent, four side vents and a fan on the back window that blows all the air out from the coop. even on high 80 degree days the coop is at a comfortable temperature, it is very windy here and even in a nice breeze it really cools off outside and when that is going on, the chickens still rather stay in the coop because it is cooler. the area outside the coop is approx 30x20
the coop is built on large pallets so the breeze can come up from underneath as well. there is coated wire floor on top of the pallets, we just brush the wire and everything falls down that didnt fall down by itself. Flies also are not an issue, sand and D earth is layed underneath the skids. we also have vanilla tree scents in the roost and by door window, keeps flies away. there are a few flies in there at times but you really have to look around to find one.
First off we have different ages of chickens. We have 15 black star and 10 other younger chickens of different breeds. Two of the younger ones have started laying just a week or so ago and are laying regularly. The other 8 are soon to start. But our issue is with the older black stars. They are approx 14mo old. 3 of them are laying and laying well but nothing from the rest of them. They are eating very well, have plenty of feed and water every day. I will try to provide as much information as i can but if i have forgoten to post something important please ask.
feed given is a layer feed from tsc or rural king. We started out with the cheaper brand ($12 for 50lb), yellow bags and started out on the crumbles, they just scratched all around it and kicked it around, wasted much more than they ate. We changed to pellets, much better, eat it better and went from one laying to 2. We changed brands again, kept with the pellets but went to the purina brand. Now have 3 laying. We also add scaps and other food to their daily diet as mentioned in several of these post. Attitude at feeding, they are very excited when we walk out to their area, always think there getting something special, they just swarm us, we have one self feeder in the coop, we also have two troughs in there as well they can eat there pellets from anytime. then give "snacks" 1 or 2 times throughout the day. They always think there getting something special
Coop- there coop is 9x9x9 with a slanted roof down to 4 feet on the back side. Inside the coop there is a levered and self supported roost that is 7 feet wide 6 feet tall and has 6 rows, plenty of room for all 25 of them to sleep comfortable at night, there is also a second roost is an opposite angle on the back side built for the little ones but they have since gone to the big roost now. There are 12 boxes total, 6 on each side with straw/hay. that is the best for their boxes, we tried chips, hay, straw, the mix of straw and hay they seem to like the best. it is built with a standard size storm door with an all window door facing the east, there is a big window on the west side that allows light in as well. coop is well lit. The laying boxes we have also noticed that if we cover them up with the feed bags so the chickens are covered while they lay, they like that better, one started laying after we did that, but still 3 total from the 15. we have the boxes off to the side so no feces is ever in the boxes, they also dont defecate in there as well, they are clean and we clean them out regularly. We also clean the coop out regularly. door leading outside to a large area fenced in with dirt and grass, there is also a leanto built to shade them from the sun while there outside, it is just about 3-4 foot tall and is 9x12. under the tarp we keep pile of limestone dust, and sand that they can eat when needed. we also have D earth pile that they can lay in and dust them selves. there are a few small holes out there where they can lay in as well. All of which the do all thought out the day.
predators- there is nothing that bothers them, we have seen no hawks and there fenced area is very secure, nothing in our out, we also have dogs out in the yard so nothing ever goes near them. the dogs do well with them, dont go up to bother them, one of them goes underneath the coop ever so often but thats it. even if he goes up to the screen gate/door to there outside area, they will stay right there at the door.
some of the black stars are considerable larger than the ones that are laying also, but none of them sit on eggs, we have checked all through out the day and never see that. Egg eater, we had one, got rid of it, continued to test them the next week just to make sure one didnt pick up the habbit, no issues at all, was just that one. that incident was 2 months ago.
insects- none we check them often, clean coop regular.
Rooster- we have one, does not go after them like others we have had. he is calm and sits and lets the hens eat and does not bully them around at feeding time.
sorry for the excesive post but figured i could give as much info that i could think of
thank you again for your time and hope to get some advise
forgot to mention couple other things,
location we live in east central indiana
also the coop has a roof vent, four side vents and a fan on the back window that blows all the air out from the coop. even on high 80 degree days the coop is at a comfortable temperature, it is very windy here and even in a nice breeze it really cools off outside and when that is going on, the chickens still rather stay in the coop because it is cooler. the area outside the coop is approx 30x20
the coop is built on large pallets so the breeze can come up from underneath as well. there is coated wire floor on top of the pallets, we just brush the wire and everything falls down that didnt fall down by itself. Flies also are not an issue, sand and D earth is layed underneath the skids. we also have vanilla tree scents in the roost and by door window, keeps flies away. there are a few flies in there at times but you really have to look around to find one.
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