Nothing Stirring

gerrym

Hello,
After a couple of years with chickens and two clearouts later we restocked last October with a half dozen chickens 6 months old(rode island, sussex and bramas) and a cock.
Our problem is that we have no eggs yet. We are feeding layers pellets and scraps from the kitchen and they are thriving.
Am i doing something wrong?

TheSmallFella

Hi Gerry,

My girls (about the same age) were the same until a couple of weeks ago. No sign of eggs, but they started laying recently.

They're still pretty fickle...not too consistent in their laying, but I'm putting it down to the weather.

Sounds like your doing everything OK! Just make sure they have a nice comfortable laying area, and check around, they might belaying outside the house.

longfordchook

"gerrym" said:

Hello,
After a couple of years with chickens and two clearouts later we restocked last October with a half dozen chickens 6 months old(rode island, sussex and bramas) and a cock.
Our problem is that we have no eggs yet. We are feeding layers pellets and scraps from the kitchen and they are thriving.
Am i doing something wrong?

your doing nothing wrong
but i would leave out the scraps till they start laying
and then only feed what scrap they can eat in about five mins
make sure they have access to the pellets at all times
the breeds you have can take up to 24-28 weeks before they start to lay
and the fact that we have had such a hard winter may have slowed things up a bit

gerrym

Thanks for taking the time to reply guys, we had next door neighbours dog in during the week. Big guy and he cleared the chickens everywhere leaving 2 around. Next morning there were 2 more outside the run. We heard the cock crowing next door and while bringing him home we heard another cok crowing, the last missing one. We now realise we have tweo cocks not one.
Would the fact that we have two cocks and 3 hens have anything to do with the lack of eggs, as I have said we have have great success in the past with eggs.

TheSmallFella

The two cocks wouldn't make a difference. They'll sort out between themselves who's alpha!

MAD HEN

I have had eggs right through winter for the first time in my 5yrs with hens. funny how it was also the first year i stopped giving layers pellets and fed them on scraps and......rolled barley. Not all were laying mind you but 3/4 eggs every other day out of a doz aint bad imo.