Still not laying

[featheredplanets]

How many hours of daylight do you have now?

About 12, will be 11 soon.

 

[Acre4Me]

Good luck - hopefully you’ll find an egg soon.

 

[featheredplanets]

Good luck - hopefully you’ll find an egg soon.

Thanks! I’m hoping so too

 

[aart]

Since you don't know their actual age.....
I'm waiting on pullets to produce too...and most my hens are not laying.
Eggs are a seasonal food

 

[featheredplanets]

Since you don't know their actual age.....
I'm waiting on pullets to produce too...and most my hens are not laying.
Eggs are a seasonal food

Good luck with your pullets!

I posted on here when I bought them and they were aged at 12 weeks, but because they’re not laying yet I lowered that potential age to 10 weeks even though that doesn’t seem likely. What do you think? These were taken the day I bought them on 6th July.

 

[aart]

Very difficult to tell for sure, especially within a couple weeks range, I won't even ponder a guess.

 

[SueT]

I'm going to guess 8 weeks or less. Looks pretty small under your hand in the photo. If you are a whole month or more off on their age, perhaps they are only 20 weeks or so.....
I have 20 week old pullets right now, not laying yet. It's a waiting game....

 

[featheredplanets]

SueT, post: 21868850, member: 355990"]I'm going to guess 8 weeks or less. Looks pretty small under your hand in the photo. If you are a whole month or more off on their age, perhaps they are only 20 weeks or so.....
I have 20 week old pullets right now, not laying yet. It's a waiting game....[/QUOTE]

No they were big, and even bigger now. I wouldn’t go below 8 weeks, they had no chick fluff. I’m pretty certain they were no younger than 10 weeks.

At 9 weeks my CCL had chick fluff still present

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I know but surely at 24 weeks and with combs like that, they should be laying soon?

This is what I thought. It just doesn’t seem right that they’re so red and one is squatting but they wouldn’t lay for another 5 or 6 months.

They still aren’t laying. Now they’re between 26 and 28 weeks old. The brown one has squatted several times but neither has grown more loud or showing any nesting behaviour. They’ve stayed locked in the coop for a couple days at a time to see if they’re laying but hiding their eggs - nope.

While combs and squatting may be an indication of possible sexual maturity, it isn't the definitive indicator.
I've had birds that never developed a big bright comb and yet laid tons of eggs. On the flipside, I had a couple hens last winter that molted and stopped laying for months. Their combs remained large and bright even though most molting birds' combs pale and shrivel.
I used to have a few hens of some breeds squat for me. However, I can't remember a hen squatting in nearly 10 years, yet they still laid thousands of eggs in that time.
Squatting is a desire to breed, not that ovulation is imminent.
I gave you a link to determine if laying was close due to the space between the pelvic bones. Have you checked that on all of them?
Locking them in the coop for a couple days due to the concern about hidden eggs is a good move, but it will also serve to limit light exposure unless your windows are huge and pointed east and west.

I would recommend more patience. I had bought my nephew and his son five started pullets back in mid-May and they just began laying this week at around 28 weeks. This has not been that uncommon of an occurrence in our area (VA/NC) this year based on what I'm hearing from other folks. I believe our warmer than usual weather with little or no rain is having an impact. How has the weather been in your part of the world this year?

Weather has little impact. Decreasing vs. increasing day length is the primary factor.
One winter I kept a spreadsheet tracking daily high and low temps, rain, snow and wind speeds as well as egg production from 3 different flocks of various ages. There was zero correlation between weather and production.

I looked into adding them but I think we won’t bother. We’ve got other things to focus on, like getting the run finished, so I’ll just try and be patient.

They still aren’t laying. Now they’re between 26 and 28 weeks old. The brown one has squatted several times but neither has grown more loud or showing any nesting behaviour. They’ve stayed locked in the coop for a couple days at a time to see if they’re laying but hiding their eggs - nope. If they don’t start laying by the end of November (about 31-33 weeks old) I think I’ll just rehome them. I can only have a small number of chickens, of which I like layers or fancy bantams, not oversized free loaders.

Just updating for my sour self so that I’m surprised when I find a green egg.

If you are unable to add light for 6 month old pullets to induce sexual maturity, have patience.
Even if they don't start laying till after winter solstice, there is no reason to rehome now. You've already fed and cared for them all this time. Rehoming will give the new owners the benefit of all that money and time.
This happened to a friend of mine. I tried to talk her out of rehoming in December. They were all laying within 3 weeks of rehoming.

About 12, will be 11 soon.

Depending on where in the UK you are it could be more or less. If you are near London you have 10 hours and 18 minutes of daylight. If you are near Inverness your days are now 9 hours and 51 minutes.
https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/london

 

[featheredplanets]

While combs and squatting may be an indication of possible sexual maturity, it isn't the definitive indicator.
I've had birds that never developed a big bright comb and yet laid tons of eggs. On the flipside, I had a couple hens last winter that molted and stopped laying for months. Their combs remained large and bright even though most molting birds' combs pale and shrivel.
I used to have a few hens of some breeds squat for me. However, I can't remember a hen squatting in nearly 10 years, yet they still laid thousands of eggs in that time.
Squatting is a desire to breed, not that ovulation is imminent.
I gave you a link to determine if laying was close due to the space between the pelvic bones. Have you checked that on all of them?
Locking them in the coop for a couple days due to the concern about hidden eggs is a good move, but it will also serve to limit light exposure unless your windows are huge and pointed east and west.

Weather has little impact. Decreasing vs. increasing day length is the primary factor.
One winter I kept a spreadsheet tracking daily high and low temps, rain, snow and wind speeds as well as egg production from 3 different flocks of various ages. There was zero correlation between weather and production.



If you are unable to add light for 6 month old pullets to induce sexual maturity, have patience.
Even if they don't start laying till after winter solstice, there is no reason to rehome now. You've already fed and cared for them all this time. Rehoming will give the new owners the benefit of all that money and time.
This happened to a friend of mine. I tried to talk her out of rehoming in December. They were all laying within 3 weeks of rehoming.


Depending on where in the UK you are it could be more or less. If you are near London you have 10 hours and 18 minutes of daylight. If you are near Inverness your days are now 9 hours and 51 minutes.
https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/london

I completely forgot to try the vent thing! I’ll have to do it tomorrow. Thanks for the other info!