Ezzy, the mutt hen, has not laid an egg since 9/6/09. She is DONE with molting and has been for at least 3 weeks. The three new NHR's who are 29 weeks old are not laying and they've been here a month now. They are out in the sun most of the day, they have layer feed available 24/7, fresh grass every few days, bugs when I can round them up, a small handful of some sort of treat every morning..... Not able to run a light out to them for the early mornings, we don't have any external outlets to attempt this either. Yeah, yeah..... 'patience' What gives? Am I just going to hang up hopes until spring or what?
None of my hens seem to be laying right now. Most of them are 18 months old and one is clearly moulting. I just looked them all over this morning and they seem healthy enough. I suspect it is just the shortening of the days and they will be laying well again come February. Derby
I have 4 op and 4 slw and they are 26 weeks old and we are getting 1 egg a day.. BUMMER!! My friend is getting 9 eggs from her 10 isa's ... WHAT'S THE DEAL! We both get the same sun, weather conditions etc. And how can a chicken molt when they haven't even started laying. I can't believe I had this cute little chicks.. waiting patiently for eggs and then you tell me they are going to molt... Where's the eggs?
I think we're all in the same boat right now. I have 50 birds - mostly young birds hatched out in April/May/June. I'm getting 4 eggs a day right now. I'm in PA.
They are just not programmed to lay when there is less than 12 hours of sunlight each day. I'm not a believer in adding supplemental light; I feel like mother nature has her reasons for shortening the day. Hang in there...they'll begin to lay when they are ready!
I was dissappointed too, I'm getting 4 a day from hens. All were hatched between April 16th and June 1st. Half of them are buff orps, and I know they can be late layers. Oh well, now I understand why the seasoned owners get their fresh stock in Feb and March.
I am in the same boat here, I have 55 layers and I am getting 3-4 eggs a day right now and have been for the last 2 months. Half of them are young, 6 months old and never laid an egg and the other half are a mix of a year old and a year and a half old and use to be great layers. I know a few of them are going through an obvious molt but the rest of the older layers are not showing signs of it. I guess they still could be but I am not seeing the signs. I am wondering if any hens stop laying if it rubs off on the others, just like when one starts laying the rest do, don't know if that can happen but its very frustrating.
Right now I'm getting a lot of scratching in the nest boxes, both the high one and the low one...... Red squats on occasion, Bertha is getting redder in the face and poor Joe is in the living room right now recovering from a game of keep away involving a massive caterpillar. Maybe she'll lay an egg while she's in here.
