Yr old Buffs Still Not Laying

[jenangelcat]

Back in June I bought some ten week old buff orpingtons. All our chickens went through a hard molt in late summer/early fall and then the days shortened. We never got eggs out of them. It's now spring and still nothing. The people we bought them from have been getting eggs from their batch all winter. We had one of them start laying a month ago and now it's stopped again.

I'm going to worm them, dust them and add oyster shell to their diet (they eat layer feed). What else can we do? We're on well water if it matters.

 

[Nicole01]

Make sure they get enough protein. Maybe switch feed? Feed them HB eggs or other high protein treats.

I have one hen out of 8 not laying, but she sits in the nest and kicks her legs. I'm assuming she's an internal layer. I'm not sure whether to keep her or cull her. I don't want her to ever be in pain.

If I had a whole flock not laying at a year, I'd be making some changes. I use Seven(rarely) and DE(frequently) as preventive. I dust their run actually. It's very dusty and we have a roof on the run, so it's always dry. They eat and dust in it. I do use oyster shell. I can tell when it runs low, or egg shells are thinner.

 

[citychickx6]

Is there perhaps something keeping them stressed out? Barking dog nearby?
I have one that is supposed to be an early layer and lay nearly every day. She did not lay a single egg until I moved her to a private coop with only her bff as company. She was 10+ months when she started.

 

[EweSheep]

Are they egg eaters?

 

[jenangelcat]

No egg eating.

I'm getting 3-4 eggs a day again from my 2 year old EE and australorps but the year olds still aren't laying. I wormed them, dusted them, added eggshell to their food. Still nothing. They don't even go in the coop during the day. They aren't laying outside.

No barking dogs. Just two geese, that we had last year as well, so nothing different there. We're somewhat rural but never see tracks of anything creeping around either. This is really frustrating and expensive.

 

[ignatz]

Look for a place they're laying other than the coop. I'd bet they found a nice hidey-hole somewhere to lay eggs and you'll find a few dozen in it.

 

[jenangelcat]

There definitely isn't anywhere else. They are in a heavily fenced area with a coop. It's flat land and small enough that I can check it out quickly.

 

[Countrymama719]

I don't have a good answer but I just went through this. I got my first set of hens last April, waited and waited and waited and never got an egg. Go all the way up to this spring, my friend had an extra rooster and so I said I'd take him, since we only had girls. Within a week of bringing him home I started seeing eggs. Now a month later I'm getting about 8 eggs a day out of 11 hens. I know they say you don't need a rooster to get eggs and it could possibly be that I live in Indiana and they were waiting for the weather to warm up to start laying. Or maybe they just needed a man to be happy.

Anyways, I hope you start seeing eggs soon! It can be a bit frustrating waiting and searching, and coming up with nothing.

 

[donrae]

Do they look mature? Are their combs nice and red and plump? Could you maybe post pics of them?

 

[jenangelcat]

We have two roos. Last week I merged the two flocks (australorps and orpingtons). I'm getting 2 eggs from the australorps, and an egg each from our lone EE and and penedesenca. This is our second year with chickens. Previously we had barred rocks that laid extremely well. We haven't changed anything other than the breed.