What's wrong with my chickens?

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talkinfool

talkinfool

Hatching
Dec 1, 2015
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I'll try to make this as short as I can. I bought 25 1 day old Rhode Island Reds from a hatchery approx July 7, 2015. Mid October, a neighbor dog got in my pen and killed over half my chickens. The neighbor tried to make it right, and found a guy from somewhere that sold him 20 Rhode Island Whites. These birds were supposedly 8-10 months old and laying. It has now been about 3 weeks and I have yet to see any eggs from any of the birds. I am feeding purina lay ration pellets (16%) and scratch (9%) as well as occasional table scraps. I am going thru 2 bags of pellets and 1 of scratch weekly. I am thinking the whites I ended up with are much older than I was told, and expect the reds to start laying any day. Advice?
 
Where are you located, and are they possibly going through a molt?

Hours of daylight in your locale might be affecting their laying; if they aren't getting enough sunlight, they will slow down or stop laying for winter...

Or if they are molting, they will need extra protein in the feed to help regrow feathers, and they slow down laying during molt, too..

Are you giving them oyster shell as well?
 
Hi :welcome

Glad you could join the flock! I'm pleased to hear your neighbour tried to make things right by getting you some other birds. Short grass gave you some good advice on what they may not be laying. I would just like to add that sometimes when hens are moved to a new home this can cause stress for them. This could then in turn cause a stop in laying. Could you post a pic of your new ones so other members could give you a guess on there age?

Good luck and enjoy BYC :frow
 
welcome-byc.gif


shortgrass and Yorkshire coop have given you the most logical reasons for your new girls not laying yet...give them time and if the birds are healthy, they will start to lay. It would be nice to see a photo of your birds, sometimes that's helpful in figuring out what is going on.

Thanks for joining us!
 
Hi Shortgrass, and all other replies;

Thanks for your replies. I'm new at all this but I don't believe the chickens are molting. When I got the whites, all their lower backs were down to just skin, but I think that was from roosters "riding" them" these Rhode Island Whites are twice the size of my reds, but supossedly only 2 months older. The whites very rarely venture outside, and do not roost. They just stay on the ground. My coop is 8'-12'. I have not started giving oyster yet, as i thought you didn't give that until they started laying. Will try to post some pics very soon. I am thinking more and more that the wites i got are prob 2-3 years old, and came from a commercial egg farm, but l don't know that for fact
 
Forgot to mention I live in Eastern New Mexico, Clovis to be exact. We are about 100 miles SW of Amarillo, and 100 miles W of Lubbock
 
Well, being as you think they may be 2-3 years old means that there's a nutritional or health problem, or they are past laying age....

I wouldn't think they're "egged out" already though, that's entirely too young, unless they're rescued battery hens?

And they would need oyster shell when they reach laying age, at about 5 months old. So yes, they do need to have oyster shell available at all times. ;)

The missing feathers and fact that they don't roost makes me think there might be a little bit of a nutrient deficiency or they were in a less than spacious environment before, so I would get something like this... A vitamin/probiotics electrolyte blend to add to their feed or water.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s?k=rooster+booster+vitamin

Your location is further south than me, I would assume you still get warm weather and more sunlight, so they shouldn't be not laying right now. Maybe getting them all back to 100% and they will be able to lay you some eggs :)


Oh yeah, lol, Welcome to BYC :)
(I'm horrible at introductions haha)
 
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