What is the longest it has taken your hens to lay??

[cstronks]

I have a 10 month old orpington named Bufferball who has yet to lay an egg. Her two sisters are laying great (3-5 eggs a week in winter), but Buffer is cleary different...special if you will. She has always been well behind her sisters in maturity, and her comb and giblets have just sort of reached a mature size (the comb is still rather small). I have seen her fiddle in the nest box, but to no avail yet. Aside from her extremely slow maturity, she has some very unusual habits. She is very hesitant to come out of the coop when I open it for the free range, but when she decided to leave, she absolutely BLASTS out and usually flies 50 feet away from the thing. She also rarely dust bathes with the other 4 birds when they are bathing in the yard. She has never been picked on by the other girls, but is probably at the bottom of the pecking order if I had to say. Also, she jostles every now and then and fluffs up her neck feathers, so she tries to climb the ladder I guess. She is just a strange chicken, and although she has yet to produce, I remain optimistic. I won't cull any of the birds in my flock because they are more "pets with benefits" than a food source. I am in it for the eggs, but from my other four hens I get plenty. I plan on expanding my flock anyways, so one bird not laying is ok

How long has it taken some of your chickens to lay? Has something like this happened in anybody's flock? Also, will she just never lay? Any stories, opinions, advice would be great! Thanks!

 

[LRH97]

I had a hen like this, a Golden Laced Wyandotte. She was too big to be a bantam, yet considerably smaller than the other hens. I'm not sure she even laid an egg. She also had a messed up beak. Your Bufferball sounds confident, trying to stand up for herself. She just might be a late bloomer. Also the birds on the bottom of the pecking order are mostly the most jumpy and nervous, you know. I'm sure the day will come and you'll see her on the nest, come back in fifteen minutes, and there will be a nice brown egg for you! You know, in a flock there's just that "one" sometime.

Good luck!

 

[cstronks]

Thanks for the advice! She is certainly the "one" in this flock. Her size has since evened out to her sisters, but the comb and giblet still have growing. She is an interesting pet...very skittish, nervous, and cautious in everything she does. She has an odd blank stare as well, which might sound typical of chickens, but she can stare into space for unknown quantities of time. Her foraging skills have picked up tremendously as she has grown...kind of like a child venturing into the deep end. Overall, she holds her own, but I would really like to see her lay an egg!