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

[Backyard Farm]

Great article!

I was considering whether I should take a few of my old girls out of the flock (3-4 yrs old).... but then realized that they were still laying 4-5 eggs per week and my young girls had pretty much quit! Same breed... some shared same genetics.

...so don't count out us "old girls"..

.. and yes, I know this isn't typical but for now my old girls can stay.

 

[EmpressNoId]

I got 10 SLW's this May. 4 weeks ago I found my first real egg. Yes, I did the chicken dance. Now I am getting 4 eggs a day but that means I have 6 girls hangin out doin not too much. We live in the Pacific NW so days are short here and we started supplementing light just about the time I found my first egg. They are getting 14 hours a day total. Layer Pellets that I purchase from Aslin Finch and all the neighborhood left over jack o lanterns and zucchini canoes a bird could hope for. Still, I am wondering why 4 of my girls are being good little eggers and 6 are not.

 

[Cass]

Quote:
Might be time to reissue the "Lay or Die" memo.

I feel your pain. I have 2 Ameruacanas that are 6 months old and haven't laid a single egg. I set up a separate coop to keep the breed pure and everything and nadda, zilch, nothing from either one of them.

However chickens are not vending machines and will lay when they are darn good and ready to. 22 - 25 weeks is just an average for maturity for laying. If you think back to 4th grade math an average is adding up all the numbers and dividing by the quantity of numbers you added up. This means that some birds laid at 16 weeks and some at 40 (or so) to get that average. They will lay when they are ready.

Have you considered that they might all be laying already, just not every hen, every day? Unless they are a "production" breed they are not going to give you an egg a day, 4 a week is more likely. So that would be 40 eggs from 10 birds a week. How close are you to 40 a week? And do you really need more eggs a week than you are getting?

 

[AbbyDog]

Here is my sad November egg situation. I live in coastal Southern California. I have 6 hens- 1 Delaware, 1 Rhode Island Red, 1 Barred Rock, 2 Ameracaunas and 1 Welsummer.

They are all the same age- chicks in May 2009. They all laid very well for about their 1st year- starting at about 6 months old with a bit of a break over Dec/Jan. Then, starting last winter (that's right, almost 1 year ago), the RIR just decided to stop and has not laid since. That was last February and she wasn't even 2 yet! She looks totally healthy, is not broody (although she tried that last year),has a good appetite- but just not interested in laying. Will she ever start up again?

The Welsummer had problems with internal laying and although she has survived, hasn't laid since last January. Her comb is starting to redden up again after she went through a long molt- so I am worried that her problems will re-surface.

The 2 Ameracaunas had a couple of good months this summer where they laid maybe 3 eggs a week each. The Barred Rock also had a couple of OK late summer months where she was doing 3- 4 eggs a week until she started to molt last month.

Only one of my six hens has been laying consistently (>3 a week) over this past year, and that is the Delaware. She is an awful, nasty, aggressive, bossy bird, and I would love to make her into stew- but she is the only one that has been dependably laying. That said, she has not laid for 3 days.

When I was getting 3-4 eggs a day, I was able to sell some each week and get a little $$ to help pay for the expensive organic feed they get.

Could it be that the extra obnoxious Delaware has pushed the others around enough so that they have given up laying? Does this sort of thing happen?

 

[Ladyandthegirls]

I have 20 Ameracaunas and 1 RIR, all but the RIR turned 6 months on 10/6, the RIR two weeks later. I got my first egg the 10/18 and a second hen started 11/2 and I may have a third hen laying starting the same day. All my eggs are brown, no blue or green. The RIR hasn't laid as she is in seperate pen. The others would all jump her so I've kept her alone. I have two small pens with the Ameracaunas, 12 in one, 8 in the other. I tried to seperate the most aggressive from the less agressive to allow the less agressive to be able to eat. The more aggressive would hog the feeder or guard it when they had finished. When one of the less aggressive started doing it I put her in with the others and they killed her. The pens are side by side. I put three of the more agressive, one at a time, in with the less agressive and they have become less agressive as the hens in that pen had their own "bosses" who put them down in the pecking order. I want to combine the two pens so there would be more room and put the RIR in with them. The RIR is big enough to hold her own, I think. I put one of the lest agressive of the more agressive in with the RIR and she(RIR) was dominate. I wish I could let them free in the yard, but my last flock was eaten by coyotes, even the rooster. If I let them out I have to watch them the whole time as the coyotes come during the day and were not afraid of the dogs. I have a larger dog(medium, 25lbs.) now, but one of the coyotes was the size of a German Sherpard(top of head even with top of full size car hood). My last flock were not nearly as agressive as these, with the exception of the rooster. All my eggs were blue and green. Any one with any ideas on my group and their laying?

 

[seminolewind]

WELL, I thought getting 3-4 eggs a day from 17 hens was bad. Now I'm getting none. Why? The crows are back looking for food for their babies-they took all the eggs out of my nests inside the coop!!!!!

 

[flocksalot]

Quote:
WOW!!!

I think I would WANT to eat crow.

 

[Cass]

Quote:
Close the door to the coop? Put up bird mesh over the openings? Get a pellet gun and take target practice on their little tails?

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
Close the door to the coop? Put up bird mesh over the openings? Get a pellet gun and take target practice on their little tails?

I closed the big door and opened the little one on the side.
Crows: pro-they chase hawks away. Con-they steal eggs.
It's a no win situation

 

[Cass]

Quote:
Close the door to the coop? Put up bird mesh over the openings? Get a pellet gun and take target practice on their little tails?

I closed the big door and opened the little one on the side.
Crows: pro-they chase hawks away. Con-they steal eggs.
It's a no win situation

Someone suggested putting a few eggs out where the crows could get them and closing up the coop....keeps the crows around but stops the uncontrolled theift of eggs. Personally I think Cracked Corn would work to keep crows around, alittle on the ground each day, at different times of day so they keep checking for it....but my run is totally covered so they can't get in any of my doors.