i have 3 hens and one rooster all aged to lay but they havent .. im a first time owner i feed them scratch and feed or w/e i mean should i be feeding them something different or is it because of the weather there not laying i mean its been 4 months since ive had them ive got the pin and coop just fine .. is it just to cold here in cumming ga or what ?? i mean is there some kind of food thatll get them layin already??
Exactly how old are they? I have some that are 8 months old that have just started. The winter is probably the biggest reason they were slow to start and they are slow maturers.
They should only get a tad of scratch, it has very little nutritional value. If it's more than that, it could cause them to lay less. There is no hard and fast on what age a hen will lay. I have some that started at 23 weeks, and others who have yet to start at 30 weeks. The shorter days of winter impact laying. As the days get longer, you should start seeing eggs.
scratch.. i throw around,, gives them someting to DO..should NOT be main food you need a good all around feed with protein and such.. i feed "lay crumble" and/or "game bird crumble".. i also feed ALL the "leftovers" from whatever we eat.. except avocado, onion, garlic... when cold or during moult,, i feed cheap DRY kitten food to my chickens...mix a little in with their crumbles if it is to cold they wont lay and also LIGHT has alot to do with production.. and every breed will start to lay at different ages.. AND STRESS,, if you just got them, new home, new stresses might make them delay.. hhmmmmmm anything else???
Do you have a light in your coop? Sometimes adding a light to where their day is 14 hours long will induce them to start laying. Jean
It depends on the breed- some take longer to start. If it's cold they don't lay sometimes- they use energy to stay warm. Good luck!
You can do what I did - it worked for me. Mine were right at 5 months old and I had read that at 5 months old they were supposed to start laying. I was getting tired of checking the nest boxes every day only to find them empty. So......I told them one day: "We are having company this weekend and the menu is either going to be eggs or chicken - you decide." They started laying.
