When do you give up on a non-layer?

[duffontap]

Hello Everyone,

We've been keeping 4-6 backyard chickens for a little more than a year now and one of our girls is 15 months old and has NEVER LAID AN EGG! There is no way she is hiding them--we watch the girls closely enough that we quickly find their stashes when they decide to lay in the goats' feed trough, or in the feed storage areas, etc (this is usually when we have a broody hen who is guarding the nesting boxes). This is a large Americana that eats very well and seems perfectly healthy, though perhaps a little slow mentally. We are limited in the amount of chickens we can keep here and we don't want to keep a non-layer forever. At what point do you just assume a chicken will never lay? JD

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

you have an it, you will never get an egg from her, she not a boy or a girl, but just to be sure, have you checked her, butt bones. are they tight together or wide apart

 

[HEChicken]

A 15-month non-layer would be stew in my home. Actually, the meal would probably be but a distant memory at this point.

 

[Lesa]

Since your space is limited (and I assume your goal, is eggs) I would say you have waited long enough...Strange that she would look so healthy and not be laying, but nature can surprise us! Can you rehome her? I can't say I have ever heard of a hen that never lays. I am sure it must happen. Unless you just want her as a lawn ornament- I would say time to trade her in! JMO

 

[duffontap]

Thank you everyone! An 'it' chicken?--just our luck! She's a good looking hen so I'm sure one of the local fly tyers would put her to work. JD

 

[chkinut]

Wow! and i thought i had it bad! i had a girl in her 1st year of laying who stopped laying in October and JUST NOW (about 2 weeks ago) started laying again! she took a 4 month break!!! while my other girls moulted for about a month at the MOST and then got right back to it! but now i'm so attached to this hen, i feel like she'll live out her days here with me.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Everyone's tolerance level differs. With the price of feed being so dear and space limited, whether that space is for 4 birds that you keep or the 40 I can keep, my tolerance is very, very low. If you have pets, that's one thing. If you want to raise them for eating, that too is another thing.

But if one's operation is eggs, then culling is essential and without much mercy or patience. Can't feed a non-laying hen.

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

I just sold a non laying bird this week. She was a red sex link, supposed to be a laying machine! I had her from 18 weeks and in nearly 4 months time she layed MAYBE 6 eggs. I am a working girl with a low income and kids and a husband, and we just can't afford to feed un productive birds at this time...the last egg she layed was 4 weeks ago. My silkie is laying almost daily! Also, I am trying to focus on purebreds at this point and she just had two strikes against her. Her new owner knew about her lack of laying and said he had another RSL just like her and he would wait her out. It was a win win for me!

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Fred's Hens :

Everyone's tolerance level differs. With the price of feed being so dear and space limited, whether that space is for 4 birds that you keep or the 40 I can keep, my tolerance is very, very low. If you have pets, that's one thing. If you want to raise them for eating, that too is another thing.

But if one's operation is eggs, then culling is essential and without much mercy or patience. Can't feed a non-laying hen.

 

[Jennings Gamefowl]

i have four that i have over a year that hadnt crowed or laid an egg( really i dont know what they are) ...although im pretty sure they are hens they hadnt laid a egg yet...but i keep feeding them in hopes i will either get an egg or two..