I have 5 hens that were born on April 1st. ONLY ONE IS LAYING? I am new to this, so I don't know if this is normal. I have 2 silver laced wyandotte's (one of them is laying) 1 Buff Orpington 2 Easter Eggers Shouldn't they be laying by now? Could I be doing something wrong? J.
6 months is not at all unusual to wait for laying to start, especially in your larger breeds, and my ee's were late to start also, compared to my red stars.
yep, EEs are often late bloomers, and they all start when they start! It really shouldn't be too much longer. Are they on layer feed? Are their combs getting red? Getting larger? ARe they doing the "egg squat"? those are signs to watch for. Sorry, Mother Nature is still working on the whole thing with them I guess!
hmmm, egg squat Well, lets see, they sort of crouch down just a little, hold their head down a little submissively, and put their wings out a bit, sort of a bowing down sort of thing. They'll come rushing up to me at times to stop cold and do it, practically tripping me in the process! It's how they react to a rooster, cause he's in charge by golly!!! Only you are sort of the surrogate roo since even if you have one, youre still bigger than him and you provide food too, so you MUST deserve the same treatment. They only do it when they are laying, and/or getting ready to lay, so it must me a hormonal /instinctive sort of thing.
Hens do not all start laying at the same time. In my case, they are usually 6+ months before they start. Also, they don't molt at the same times either. They can be a couple months apart, and then not always start laying at the same time when they are done either. My older hens are starting their molts now. Well, only one has lost her feathers. The other two just aren't laying. Another hen has lost her tail feathers, but no other feathers yet. Since my hens are older now, they have not been laying during the fall and winter months once they molt. Some molt in Sept, some in Oct and Nov. Then they start laying again anywhere from Feb to end of March. But these are 7 year old hens, next year they will be 8 years, when and 'if' they start laying again. The younger ones, laid all through the winter. I have 5 hens now that are not yet 6 months, May and June babies, so I do not know yet if when they turn 6 months they will start laying because it will be close to winter. Time will tell.
This is a chart Eggs4Sale's doing that might help you a little: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=231744
Quote:What you are seeing is basically a mating response, with a roo present, the hens will squat in the position you are seeing so the roo can mount them. In the absence of a roo, they will submit to the closest dominant thing which is you. This behavior just indicates they are approaching the point of maturity to begin mating and laying eggs. Often, in a flock of hens, one of them may start to crow and exhibit dominant behavior when there is no roo around.
I have a hen from a march hatch who still hasnt started laying yet, she's a large chicken though, and they take longer. My EE's were creeping up on 23 weeks when they finally started laying. It will happen. Dont worry. You are not past the normal laying age. no worries~!
