What Gives? Eleven 24 week old hens with one small egg laid and nothing since?? (8 days and countin

[cbookout]

Hello All. One of my chickens laid their first egg (on the floor of the coop) 8 days ago. I have not seen an egg since???

All of my hens were hatched 2/18 and are 24 weeks old. I believe based on the egg color (tinted - vanilla color) that it was a Speckled Sussex. I also have Buff Orpingtons, New Hampshire Reds and Easter Eggers. My neighbor who bought 2 easter eggers at the same time and from the same breeder has been receiving 3 blue/green eggs a week for 2 weeks.

What gives? Why did I get one egg and nothing since for over a week. Is that normal?

(And in case anyone asks: 1 SS and 1 EE are squatting and my NH Reds combs and waddles have become red the past few days but still no more eggs)

 

[silkiechick101]

Yes don't worry this is normal hens start to lay at many different ages (from 5-8 months) just don't rush it they won't be regularly laying in the beginning but they will get there

 

[DanEP]

What silkiechick said plus hot weather can slow the process down too.

 

[cbookout]

Thanks Dan and Silkie Chick,

I guess I have pouring over other posts regarding egg laying and I see some saying they started getting eggs at 15 weeks? My birds did not even look mature at 15 weeks.

Also when I received my first egg, 9 days ago now, and have not received one since I was wondering if I am doing something wrong. My birds are 24 weeks and huge.

Is is hot here for sure! I live in North Texas and we are expected to be in the triple digits all week. I have a mister for them but its still unbearable.

Cheers!

 

[DanEP]

I have a dozen new girls out there right now and none of them started before 22 weeks and and a couple haven't laid yet at 26 weeks. It will happen it just seems to take longer in the heat or in winter.
Regarding the 15 weeks I've never seen it, not saying it can't happen but it would not be the norm. I have raised a lot of production birds in the past and never had one lay before 19 weeks and heritage breed chickens will take longer. In a couple of months when you have all kinds of eggs you'll forget how long the wait was.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Do these birds free range?

Laying one egg and then no others is strange - usually once they start laying pullet eggs, they're up and going. It's usually an egg every 2 or 3 days at first, but one and then a week+ is strange.

Usually when I start asking myself "why aren't the birds laying?" I find a nest somewhere unexpected.

 

[BroodyBettysMom]

We have a Dominique who is bigger than all the other chickens. Me and hubby were talking day before yesterday about just having her culled. Yesterday she comes out of a fallen trees branches raising up a storm! Went to look, expecting a snake, found 4 eggs! Look anywhere dark, quiet, and safe (to a chicken)!

 

[cbookout]

Thanks everyone for the great input.

So my birds have a little over 10,000 sq ft of free range area that is 1/2 heavily wooded and the other 1/2 lightly wooded with lots of grass to eat. I have 6ft fencing on 3 sides and 8ft fencing on the 4th side. Also have tension wire along the bottom of all fences except the one bordering my neighbors chickens. My neighbors have 20 hens and an enormous Australorp Roo. My birds and their birds can see each other and interact all day. Their birds are laying machines. I have 1 EE that flies wherever she wants, over the fence and back, but she's the only one that gets out of the enclosure.

At 5mos I switched them to Layer Feed and I also offer Oyster Shell and Crushed Granite in Rabbit Feeders. I have 3, 3.5 gallon waterers throughout the property, all in the shade and 1 inside the coop. They get a few handfuls of scratch a day just thrown about to encourage digging and pecking in certain areas where the grass is getting high. I also give them lots of fruit and veggie kitchen scraps, mostly grapes, watermelon, leafy greens and squash. Plus all the bugs and worms they can find.

Every other day I put on my jeans and boots in the 100 degree heat and canvas the property for eggs. The wooded area is extremely hard to get through with lots of thorny vines but I've been doing it to make sure there are no eggs anywhere. I have not found an egg yet except the one inside the coop, on the coop floor under the roosting bars in the pine shavings. I have 4" of pine shavings on the floor so she may have laid it while on the roost bar but there is so much padding on the floor it didn't break.

Ive got nesting pads with pine shavings on top in the nesting boxes. I sprinkle fresh mint, basil and rosemary in their nesting boxes once a week just to make it smell nice. I also have 4 light brown wood eggs that I keep in the nesting boxes.

All my neighbors, who all raise chickens, make fun of me for all the work and time I spend "pampering" these birds and the amount of space I fenced off for them in my yard. But I wanted them to have a nice life in exchange for all the eggs.

There is one thing that I did not really think about but I just moved all my chickens into a brand new coop (see pics on profile). The one they were in before was way too small and there was no room for nesting boxes. So about 2 1/2 weeks ago I moved them over to the new coop, complete with roll out nesting boxes and automatic chicken door. Its on a timer and opens every morning at 7am and closes every night at 9pm. It only took 2 nights of carrying each one from the old coop to the new coop and they started to go into the new coop on their own. I got that egg 5 days after they moved to the new coop, I was so excited. But nothing since.

So maybe they were about to start laying and then I stressed them out by moving them to the new coop? Or maybe its possible that the breeders gave me the wrong hatch date? But my neighbor went with me and picked up two EE's for himself and his are laying so I think the hatch date is correct. None of them have any noticeable signs of sickness, I pick my favorites up most days and look them over. The others I can only catch at night and I can't see much at that point.

Any ideas? I'm hoping I just totally stressed them out by moving them into a new home and reset their egg laying clock.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Is the coop/run big enough that you could leave them locked up for a day or two? If you can do that, you can eliminate the possibility that they're just hiding them all over the place. Laying on the roost is a little tougher to diagnose, but they usually fix that on their own.

 

[cbookout]

I'm not sure? I could do it but I might have fried chicken by the evening. Supposed to be triple digits here all week. 1/2 the coop is open air with horse fencing but it still gets super hot in there if there is no breeze. I could easily do it but would worry that would also stress them out.