Why are my 9-month-old hens not laying?!

[chicken mama 0908]

Yay!
So what’s the feeding plan now?

I'm going to free feed and give them fermented feed. I am going to wait till all are laying to swap to layer feed. At the moment they are eating all flock high protein feed. I am also going to keep offering them oyster shells.

 

[SmiYa0126]

If they're eating all those food when you feed them they might not be getting enough and are stressed. Can you give them kitchen scraps in between?

 

[Australorpfamily]

Will this solve my problem?

• up their feed to 1/2 cup per hen per day
• switch back to grower feed and give them free access to oyster shells?

Also, we are going to extend the chicken yard to include an orchard this summer, but at the moment they don't free range.

I free choice feed our 22 hens and they go through maybe a 50# bag of dumor chick start and grower feed a week. Our location it was 20$ a bag, but we recently went to our mill and got 500#(not 150 lol) for 158. We do free choice oyster shells and have buckets of water for them too. (((Also my mill mixes it and can do a layer type feed with added protein, just ask if you have one close)))

I guess to me feeding two giant dogs feeding the girls is nothing on price.

 

[SmiYa0126]

A good way to check if your hens are getting enough is checking how full their crops are at night. They sound be nice and firm. If they feel loose then they're not getting enough.

 

[NatJ]

I got All Flock feed that is 20% protein. If by free feeding them this and fermenting them some as well, I have fixed the problem, when will I start getting eggs?

I would expect between 2 and 6 weeks for them to start laying, unless they have major health issues that no-one yet knows about.

It takes a hen's body a certain amount of time (a few weeks) to make a supply of egg yolks ready to go, then she can produce one egg every day or so by adding the white & shell and laying it, while also keeping up the supply of properly-sized yolks.

I am assuming you are in the northern hemisphere, so the days are getting longer. If you are on the other side of the world, with days getting shorter, they may take a bit longer.

 

[RoyalChick]

Feeding just twice a day is not at all natural for a chicken. They spend daylight hours cycling through eating, digesting and eating again.
That is why free feeding works so well. Otherwise I would have to be constantly running out with a bowl of food.
This morning I gave mine a big bowl of pellets soaked overnight in milk. They stuffed their faces and it is about half gone and they are resting and preening and sunbathing.
Within the next hour at least half of them will have gone back to the bowl and finished it off.

 

[Friendofchix]

I have a mixed flock of 9, Wyandottes, ISA Brown, Buff Orpington, Barred Rock and I free feed Scratch and Peck layer. They all began laying when they were around 5-6 months old. I have 8 hens and I get at least 6 eggs every day. They will eat what they need; I have not found that they overeat or waste any food. The feed cost is high, I understand, but right now you’re trying to be cost efficient and you’re getting nothing in return. Try free feeding dry and see what happens! You have nothing to lose at this point as your feed cost=nothing at this point.

 

[Yardmom]

You mentioned free feeding to be expensive. I'm assuming you comparing it to fermented feed. How did you come to that conclusion? Unfortunately the reason you were saving money was because your birds were not eating enough. You could continue to feed solely fermented feed, but you need to make your amount of feed fed to be based on dry weight. You will likely find you won't save much by fermenting, and it is much easier to feed free choice dry feed.

 

[chicken mama 0908]

I have a mixed flock of 9, Wyandottes, ISA Brown, Buff Orpington, Barred Rock and I free feed Scratch and Peck layer. They all began laying when they were around 5-6 months old. I have 8 hens and I get at least 6 eggs every day. They will eat what they need; I have not found that they overeat or waste any food. The feed cost is high, I understand, but right now you’re trying to be cost efficient and you’re getting nothing in return. Try free feeding dry and see what happens! You have nothing to lose at this point as your feed cost=nothing at this point.

I started offering them free feed last week. I also give them fermented feed. At first, they ate like crazy, now it has slowed down a lot. I also noticed that lately one of my hens has started checking out the nesting boxes. She has been sitting in them to.

 

[Friendofchix]

I started offering them free feed last week. I also give them fermented feed. At first, they ate like crazy, now it has slowed down a lot. I also noticed that lately one of my hens has started checking out the nesting boxes. She has been sitting in them to.

That’s great news, on your way to an omelette for sure.