Why Aren't My Chickens Laying? Here Are Your Answers!

[Cass]

Question,
I have one of my 6 chickens that started laying about 3wks ago. She produced odd shaped double yolk eggs. She laid for about a week then stopped. The last egg she layed was soft and rubbery. She hasn't laid and egg for about 10 days and is now sitting in the hens' laying box for about 20 min a day. She looks just like she did went she was laying but when she gets up, no egg. She has free access to oyster shells and shes eating layer food.
Any suggestions as to what might be going on?
I've inspected her vent and it appears to be normal (based on comparing it to the other hens).

Thanks for the replies.

Might be the lack of daylight. If you are supplimenting light, it could be a whole lot of other things....most of which involve "wait and see".

 

[flocksalot]

White Leghorns are the mainstay of production egg farms. I had the *pleasure* of helping install the auto-egg collector in a large production "coop". (Really a very long short barn full of cages with auto waterers and feeders in them...plus 2 chickens each. It was pitiful, really) I got to talk to the owner of the egg farm, cuz I was a kid and who can resist a child's enthusiasm for their occupation? I was interested in the concrete room full of fluffy yellow chicks. As he explained it, he was raising his hen's replacements, every year 1/4 the "flock" went to Campbell's soup company in NJ and were replaced with the new hens that he was raising in the concrete room. He said that his chickens stopped laying at 2 years of age, so they became soup. This also explained why there were different colored tags on cages. 4 different colors. Each color designated the hen's expiration date.

So there you have it, from someone who made his living off eggs. Production birds stop being productive at about 2 years of age. Then they are only good for soup. I don't have a single production breed in my flock....a few pure breeds (Ameruacanas) and a bunch of mutts.

Ah yes, Campbells soup. My Aunt used to work for them on Minnesota. They made turkey soup there too. My Dad hated them! He thought it was terrible the way those birds were raised. Funny though I wouldn't keep any of mine penned the way we did when I was a kid.

We have some White Leghorns that are still laying an egg a day that will be 3 come Feb. How much you wanna bet the just dry up all of a sudden. They are good girls though and always go in early enough to always get a prime perch spot. I've never had to shoo a White Leghorn into the coop at night.

The sad thing is that many of the breeds have been sourced the same way. We have gotten some of our birds from hatcheries and some from breeders. The RIRs that I got from the hatchery were as scrawny as a Leghorn and layed the same. After two years they were pretty much done. They had not enough meat on them to be coyote bait, but some are my sons pets so they get to stay til natural death do us part. I've also gotten some Dark Cornish from a hatchery and they lay eggs extremely well, forage most of their food, are awesome mothers, and the boys are meaty little devils. But the hatchery ones are cross bred with another breed to accomplish this and thus they do have less meat than the Cornish I got from a breeder. Those birds are HUGH! And the taste is amazing. The hatchery Cornish are a way of having your cake and eating it too. There is plenty of meat on those birds with the Devinne flavor that only comes from a chicken that is grown over time, and they are very consistent layers even over the winter for us. And although the eggs are of the medium size the yolks stay deep pumpkin orange all year. The only down side is they don't breed true due to the cross.

And as for those mutts, well Esmeralda, one of our 10 1/2 year old girls, has been laying 4 very large bright sky blue eggs a week again. That old broad is one of our favorite girls and our older customers are always thrilled to see one of her eggs in their purchase. She and her sister Big Bertha are from my sons original batch along with Rudy, otherwise known as Big Daddy our original rooster. Those two hens are the genetics that we like to pass on. So we have many many younger versions of them and their original sisters. All of them layed well past the age of six and died of natural causes. I'll be collecting some of their eggs for the incubator with the hopes of even more.

We do supply supplemental lighting. I have a small fluorescent over the feed at all times. The chickens can get away from it and get into the dark by going up onto their perch. It's too dark up there for me to see them without a flashlight. The light is just enough to keep me in eggs and gives the chickens enough light to see any rodents make a mad dash for their food. The girls love the extra protein. I however am usually totally freaked and grossed out especially when it's one of those huge Norway rats that are as big or bigger than my foot. Thankfully they leave very little evidence for me to get the hebegebez over. They will even eat all the blood covered bedding. Chickens are just so gross.

My brother keeps asking me why his chickens don't lay all winter. Dude, you need a light. Days will be getting longer here shortly though and it doesn't take much for those girls to get back into the swing of things, so for those of you that have no lighting the days will be getting longer soon enough and then you will be looking at the recipes section trying your darnedest to figure out what to do with all those eggs. Mm mm Good!

 

[Annevi]

This is my first real try at posts, I asked my Grandmother the same question about 15 years ago, the question was "Why are my chickens not laying eggs?" It was winter and they had a well insulated coop with fresh water, bedding and feed. I went and talked with them daily and still, no eggs. Grandmother giggled and asked, do you keep a light on for them? I said, "no, they seem to be warm enough" Grandmother said, "well a light can be for warmth too, but chickens need eight or more hours of light to lay eggs, so you need to hang a light bulb for them so they will lay for you" So, we did, and in less than a week the "Girls" started laying eggs for us. We now have a timmer that turns the light on, (also a source of heat because right now it is -10 degrees that's below zero) We have a well insulated coop with double pane windows for sunlight and warmth in winter and ventalation in the summer.
Our Girls has not stopped laying in winter unless they were in the molt. I hope my Grandmothers advice to us is helpful to others.

Hope your day is Blessed with Joy

Always
Rocksie

 

[chickgma]

I just bought my first day old chicks in June. Around Thanksgiving 3 started laying and the other 4 haven't yet. Any ideas why?

 

[ldomerese]

i had four hens that i got at tree months old in june and i just got my first egg on xmas any ideas y?
they get good feed lots ofwater and they free ranged for the summer and iknow the hens were not laying outside of the coop because i watched them very well

 

[Cass]

i had four hens that i got at tree months old in june and i just got my first egg on xmas any ideas y?
they get good feed lots ofwater and they free ranged for the summer and iknow the hens were not laying outside of the coop because i watched them very well

I just bought my first day old chicks in June. Around Thanksgiving 3 started laying and the other 4 haven't yet. Any ideas why?

Chickgma....the other 4 might be roosters. Or they ALL might be laying , just not every chicken every day. (That's my bantams. I have 5 and I get 3 eggs a day....but never the same 3...yes, eggs do look different and once a hen gets in the swing of laying her eggs will almost always look the same every time she lays one)

To both of you. Do you suppliment the light in their coop? If a hen doesn't have 12+ hours of light a day they won't lay. (Unless they are a couple of my chickens, who think 8 hours a day is enough most of the time, but I give them 12 hours anyway)

There are reports of some breeds of chickens not laying for 9 months....with winter setting in it might be spring before you get an egg from some of your birds. You didn't specify the breed of chickens either of you have, but the breed does make a difference. There are reports of Ameruacana hens not laying a single egg for their entire first year. On the other side, other people have had Feburary hatched chicks lay at 16 weeks. (again, breed matters) 16 weeks is still 4 months old...the average age of first egg is 20-22 weeks, which is over 5 months old.


Above all, remember Chickens are not vending machines. Even in optimum conditions they are not going to lay just because you want them to. They will lay when they lay. And the ones that don't meet your production requirements are tasty in stew or soup.

 

[chickgma]

Chickgma....the other 4 might be roosters. Or they ALL might be laying , just not every chicken every day. (That's my bantams. I have 5 and I get 3 eggs a day....but never the same 3...yes, eggs do look different and once a hen gets in the swing of laying her eggs will almost always look the same every time she lays one)

To both of you. Do you suppliment the light in their coop? If a hen doesn't have 12+ hours of light a day they won't lay. (Unless they are a couple of my chickens, who think 8 hours a day is enough most of the time, but I give them 12 hours anyway)

There are reports of some breeds of chickens not laying for 9 months....with winter setting in it might be spring before you get an egg from some of your birds. You didn't specify the breed of chickens either of you have, but the breed does make a difference. There are reports of Ameruacana hens not laying a single egg for their entire first year. On the other side, other people have had Feburary hatched chicks lay at 16 weeks. (again, breed matters) 16 weeks is still 4 months old...the average age of first egg is 20-22 weeks, which is over 5 months old.


Above all, remember Chickens are not vending machines. Even in optimum conditions they are not going to lay just because you want them to. They will lay when they lay. And the ones that don't meet your production requirements are tasty in stew or soup.

Thank you for your reply! No, I'm sure they are all hens (did have a rooster in my batch of 8 but he turned mean & had to go.) You know, it may be that 4 are laying as there's been 2 speckled eggs (total) and the rest are dark to light brown. I've seen 1 of 2 barred Rocks lay an egg & 1 of 2 Delawares lay an egg. I have 2 Rhode Island Reds and one Buff Orpington. I do not have any electricity in my coop, so no lights or heat. Oh, I would never think of my girls as vending machines...just seems odd that some are laying and some are not, especially since they all (according to breed) are supposed to be laying by now.

 

[Cass]

Thank you for your reply! No, I'm sure they are all hens (did have a rooster in my batch of 8 but he turned mean & had to go.) You know, it may be that 4 are laying as there's been 2 speckled eggs (total) and the rest are dark to light brown. I've seen 1 of 2 barred Rocks lay an egg & 1 of 2 Delawares lay an egg. I have 2 Rhode Island Reds and one Buff Orpington. I do not have any electricity in my coop, so no lights or heat. Oh, I would never think of my girls as vending machines...just seems odd that some are laying and some are not, especially since they all (according to breed) are supposed to be laying by now.

The lack of light is probably the problem. If there is any way you can string a lead and add light that probably will add to your egg count. If you can't do that (and we all understand that early ghetto isn't welcome in all neighborhoods) then spring will fix things for you. And spring is just a couple months away...remember that the days are already getting longer, it's past Dec 21st.

There is a line of thinking that by not supplimenting light in the winter you add to the length of time (sometimes measured in years) that your current hens will lay. If you aren't going to starve because of the lack of eggs, I recommend you just wait until they start laying. April is the date that CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)organizations start their "egg shares"...so that is probably a good indication of when chickens start to lay enough for "sale", meaning they start laying again for the season. April is only 3 months from now. (if you have already turned your calender to January)

 

[oletymer]

I have a heat lamp in a metal bucket with a lid for a heat source and an over head heat lamp for light and heat and my girls haven't skipped a beat, Plus I treat them to warm oat meal every other day because of the cold weather and snow, My oldest girls (leghorns) are 2 1/2 and still laying an egg a day, god bless them

Chickgma....I have a RIR that I raised from a chick and took her 7 months before she layed her first egg, I guess they all mature differently. hang in there they will mature.

 

[chickgma]

I have a heat lamp in a metal bucket with a lid for a heat source and an over head heat lamp for light and heat and my girls haven't skipped a beat, Plus I treat them to warm oat meal every other day because of the cold weather and snow, My oldest girls (leghorns) are 2 1/2 and still laying an egg a day, god bless them

Chickgma....I have a RIR that I raised from a chick and took her 7 months before she layed her first egg, I guess they all mature differently. hang in there they will mature.

Thank you for the encouragement! I will just have to be patient &/or wait till Spring!