chicks not laying, none of the usual reasons

[Suzy]

I have 80 hens that I received as day-old chicks from Murray McMurray hatchery the first week in March of this year.

I have been ordering chicks from them a couple of times per year since Y2K.

These are a mixture of Golden Comets, barred rocks, buffs, and Easter egg chickens.

They have grown into beautiful and healthy-looking chickens....but I'm only getting about five eggs per day from the 80 of them!!!!

Every other batch of chicks I've gotten from them began laying at between 4 and a half and five months...

These girls have been raised exactly like all my other chickens...They eat the same laying pellets from our local co-op as all my other chickens (I have about 225 total now) plus they are free range in a huge area so eat lots of bugs, worms, other things...

There have been no major predators and they march in every night to be shut up safely in their side of the chicken house...

Anybody got any ideas why they all aren't laying yet? I should have eggs running out my eyeballs by now!

[Anon001]

Hi. You say the chicks have been free range? Is there anything lying around that they can lay their eggs in or under? They may be laying and you just not finding them. Also, I usually don't expect any eggs until at least 6 months of age. Not too long after that they start to moult and most hens will lay little to no eggs between the Autumn molt and the Spring molt.

[ldsparamedic]

I agree with PaulINKS. I would also check their beaks for dried egg yolk. I had a couple of hens that would eat everyones eggs. If you find any seperate them and butcher as soon as they are big enough.

[Anon001]

Suzy, did you ever figure out your problem?
Paul

[LeatherneckPA]

Suzy, are you supplementing the daylight with a light in their hen house? Mine is turned on at 630am and off at 8pm. Hens need about 12-14 hours of light per day to lay regularly.

I'd also follow up on the idea that they are laying out in the wild somewhere.

Last week I had planned on changing the straw in the next boxes, so I emptied the old stuff out. Then something else came up and I got sidetracked for a few days. Egg production slipped from 8 per day to 2, then down to 0 for two days. That was enough of that!! I put in fresh straw. Production went 3, 3, 5, 8 and we are back on schedule. I'm finding that my girls are very sensitive to what I consider seemingly insignificant considerations. Maybe they don't like your nest material? Or maybe they've never learned to nest in them? Try trapping a quarter of them in the house each day and see if they use the nest boxes?

First check your lights, then play around trying different things until you find what works for your girls.

[Sevengin]

How are your hens doing now?

This happened to me when we first got chickens. I was wondering why I wasn't getting the amount of eggs that I thought I should be getting.

One day my DH was looking for something under stored under the house and came across a medium size box full of eggs. We searched and fixed the place where they were getting under the house.

[harvester]

yep they should be laying, but the time of year and the light are most likely affecting their laying habbits. put an automatic light timer in their hen house and make sure they are getting around 16-18 hrs of light a day. this should make a huge difference. also keep in mind you did get a mixed batch of chickens, some of them will not lay at that 4 month marker, some of them will take up to 6-8 months to begin laying. i dont think there is anything wrong with your management habbits or your feeding habbits, its merely the breed and the light.