When will my lady's start to lay??

[RoosterHuggerLiz]

I've got a pair of bantam cochin /father/ x sea bright/mother/ crosses that are about 24 weeks. My BC hens always start laying when they where about 16-19 weeks and they sea bright mother laid soon after but For some reason these ladies are taking a lot longer. I know that their pullets because I've already had to get rid of the cockrells from the batch because they were already crowing and huge combs/waddles

I'm worried about how delayed they are in laying because I've got very few laying hens left to provide eggs for my family, my animals, and myself. My other girls are elderly and molting. Hence the reason why I hatched some new layers but for some layers. I know I need to be patient but how could I help them along to help them start producing eggs?

 

[RoosterHuggerLiz]

They're both a healthy weight, I've even say a little overweight which is another issue because whenever their mother (SB) would molt and stop laying she would gain a lot of weight extremely quickly to the point of walking issues. (We have them on a special feed regimen because of them being bantams but we also have a lot of fruit trees on our property that they like to snack on

 

[BDutch]

You can’t force a natural proces.
Just wait, be patient.

In the meantime:
Make sure the chickens don’t get fat. Give them nutricious food, no snacks. Enough exercise and a comfortable laying nest with a fake egg . That way they know were to lay their first egg, if they are not cought by surprise.

 

[BDutch]

If they free range, keep an eye on them. Some chickens tend to lay outside and don’t prefer the nestbox.

 

[RoosterHuggerLiz]

You can’t force a natural proces.
Just wait, be patient.

In the meantime:
Make sure the chickens don’t get fat. Give them nutricious food, no snacks. Enough exercise and a comfortable laying nest with a fake egg . That way they know were to lay their first egg, if they are not cought by surprise.

The only extra snacks they received are the fruits that fall from the trees in the yard, mangoes, mulberries, and star fruit. We do our best to pick the ripened fruit before it can fall but they now just fly up and pick them from the tree. They have a nest egg but it is a wooden duck egg, and some golf balls. Thank you

 

[BDutch]

I don’t know if fruit can be a problem. I meant grains, meal worms, human left overs and corn as snacks.
Mine like to eat fruit too.

I never heard that it effects the moment they lay their first egg. Tbh I don’t know because my chickens always started to lay in autumn of early spring. Never in the fruit season.

 

[RoosterHuggerLiz]

Maybe, I live in Florida so there really aren't seasons here. That's never really affected my girls though