Nearly two months ago, my husband and I bought eight 3 year old hens to hold us over in eggs until our pullets start laying. The gentleman selling them wanted to find them new homes because he had plans of starting a new flock and didn't want to have to deal with new and old flock issues. I do know that most hens have reached the end of their high production days at two years of age but we figured three years isn't that old and that between eight of them, they would provide us with enough eggs for our family of four. We did ask if they were still laying and he chuckled and said, "Oh, yeah." I also peeked into their nesting boxes, counted six eggs and had high hopes. It's been almost two months and we're barely getting a dozen a week. I know they need to time to adjust to their new surroundings but I figured two months is ample time. They eat layer feed, crushed oyster shells, some kitchen scraps(never any bread), free-range from eleven am until they put themselves to bed at night. They aren't molting, they get along great with the younger flock, it isn't too hot(in the seventies), have access to plenty of fresh water and still nothing more than 1-3 eggs a day(most days are 2 and a couple of days are zero). They are two Easter Eggers, two RIRs, two Red Stars and two some type of unidentified(to me)red sex-link. The Easter Eggers and the RIRs are definitely laying but I do believe that the sex-links are not. We've wondered if they've been laying their eggs elsewhere since they do free-range most of the day so we tried keeping them in all day and it still made no difference. Thoughts?
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