Not an egg in sight.

So a friend of mine moved and asked if I would take her 4 month old hens; of course was my answer. This was Sept. 5 and these girls still are not laying eggs. Any ideas on why? The girls did not socialize very well with my flock so I keep them in their own run which abuts my flock's run. When they free-range during the day all is great. Probably because everyone is pretty much foraging and minding their own business. Thank you in advance for your help.

Comments

  • JennyT Upstate South Carolina
    JennyT Upstate South Carolina Posts: 1,273 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @annflancan My questions are thus, have the new hen molted recently? How about calcium, are they getting enough? And while on the topic of food are they getting enough to eat? Are they still separated? Or have you combined with your other hens?

    I know in my experience integrating new hens can be tricky and slightly difficult. As for laying, all my other questions cover topics that were issues that I had to address for the laying to continue/pickup.

    Hope that helps and gives you some things to consider.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    In addition to what JennyT already said...

    1. They could still be too young to lay depending on the breed/hybrid.

    2. It may also be a factor of daylight hours being less in the winter, which will delay point of lay.

    3. Stress can play into things. To help reduce stress, you can add a touch of live ACV to their non-galvinized (important!) waterers.

    4. Do they have internal/external parasites?

    My guess is that they are just naturally responding to the lesser hours of daylight and it will just take them a little longer to start to lay. I have seen that in my late hatched pullets in the past.

  • annflancan
    annflancan Posts: 84 ✭✭✭

    Thank you so much for you help. No they are not molting and they have free choice feeding along with a separate oyster shell feeder. I have probiotics, kelp and brewers yeast mixed in with their feed as well. Yes, they are still in their own run. My hens still would peck at them mercilessly if they were enclosed together.

  • annflancan
    annflancan Posts: 84 ✭✭✭

    Ok great. This makes sense. I will continue to give them what they need and be patient. They do seem a bit stressed out and do not always display chicken-like behavior. They are and odd set of sisters.

  • frogvalley
    frogvalley Posts: 675 ✭✭✭✭

    We had one batch of chickens like that, young going into the fall. We were told they needed 10 consecutive days over 45 F degrees before they start laying. Maybe the start of that parameter is after they reach reproductive maturity? Anyway, they started laying in the spring. It seemed like it took forever, but they did start.

  • gardneto76
    gardneto76 Posts: 528 ✭✭✭✭

    I had a set of sisters do the same thing. I got them as chicks and they were a full year old before they started laying. We have very mild winters so I know temperatures were not much of a factor. About 3 months they molted, so again no eggs for a few months. Just as they started laying again, one passed of heat stroke. I now only randomly get an egg or two from the remaining sister as we go into shorter days. Sadly I have been roughy 1 year & 9 months without a steady layer. I have an older chicken that also is a free loader.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin
    edited December 2020

    @annflancan You can also give them artificial light to supplement the hours. You would have to gave it on a timer though. This is done by many that have chickens.

    @frogvalley I have heard from poultry keepers over & over that it is not a matter of heat, it's a matter of daylight hours. I would have to agree with this somewhat, as when my late blooming pullets started, the hours of daylight had increased, but the temps were way below -30°C.

  • frogvalley
    frogvalley Posts: 675 ✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning It probably was the light, I just failed to mention that part of my conversation with my dinner fixin' husband who raised the girls and was reminding me.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Also, many breeds do not start laying until 20 - 22 weeks some take even longer. Plus the shorter days (lack of daylight) can stop them from laying. Heat usually has very little effect. We live in Alaska in an area where -20 to -30 is fairly common in the winter. Insulated but un-heated coops, some of our girls lay mostly year round others have stopped laying bu mid August and don't start again until March or April.

    So all of that plus the drastic changes involved in moving from their old owners to you, meeting a lot of new chickens, put in a new coop. It may have set them back a bit for their start at laying.

  • annflancan
    annflancan Posts: 84 ✭✭✭

    Living here in southern Cal. we do not get many 45 degree days. We would have to be deep into winter to get that kind of weather, if at all. I will be patient until spring.

  • annflancan
    annflancan Posts: 84 ✭✭✭

    So this has been my very novice assessment as well. I think the girls are stress-out.

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭

    Some of our pullets just started laying last week. They were hatched in April so they're around 7 months old. They are the last to lay out of our two spring purchases. We started getting pullet eggs about 3 months ago. We have all different breeds as hubby hates "plain" chickens.

  • Slippy
    Slippy Posts: 117 ✭✭✭

    I should consider myself lucky, we are getting 4-5 eggs a day from our six layers. 2 of the 6 are still pretty young so I'm expecting the final girl to start laying any day now. We still get plenty of sun here in the Deep South and temps are still in the 50's/40's.

    Good luck all with your chickens over the winter!

  • annflancan
    annflancan Posts: 84 ✭✭✭

    Thank you for the info. It seems as if patience will be the best practice for now and we will see how things develop in the Spring.

  • annflancan
    annflancan Posts: 84 ✭✭✭

    @Slippy Thank you for the well wishes. Glad to hear that your girls are still going strong I the South. The other 6 hens that I have are giving me 3-4 eggs a day so I am quite happy about that.