Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

poohbear59

Hi, I have six hens and none of them are laying in the nesting boxes. We have searched but have found none in tHe garden. DH says they are to go if they are not laying as we are paying to feed them

I have tried keeping them in for a bit longer in the mornings, used pottery eggs to no avail. We have kept hens for 9 years now so are not new to it. Can anyone give me any more ideas on what I can do?

Gigervamp

How old are they? It seems odd that none of them are laying. Could you have an egg eater?

Mojisola

Do you ever hear them making the noise they make after laying?

Have you checked their pubic bones to see if they are in lay?

ionahenor2

Hi Poohbear, I'm a novice compared to you so I'm probably suggesting the obvious.

Do they not have a pen large enough to stay in all day?

I found some eggs last summer up in the bracken and was pretty sure which hen it was but then she got the others to join in so they were kept in their pen for a while and only allowed to FR with us. They got the message and now they all lay in the one nest. Its sometimes a squeeze when they all try to sit in together even when they have laid but I think they like the elevated position (the house is on a stand) and that they can look out of the door and watch the world go by, dreaming of finding a gang of woodlice.

Does anyone else have hens that are choosey about which worms they eat? Mine will often turn their beaks up at worms I find under pots.

poohbear59

The hens are around 18 months old and didn't lay at all during the Winter, then we started to get one egg a day, now nothing. I have put out rat traps in case they were being eaten by rats but have caught nothing.

I have found two empty shells in the next door garden.

poohbear59

Our hens have a hen house which is raised off the ground and have free range of our gardens and all the fields around. We haven't used a pen and in the past all our hens laid in the nesting boxes. maybe it is time to build a pen but it does seem cruel after them having complete free range.

I have to admit that after having hens for nine years I have never checked pubic bones. what am I looking for?

Gigervamp

poohbear59 wrote: »

I have found two empty shells in the next door garden.

That does sound like something's taking them. We have some of those ceramic eggs and one got left outside. A few days later, the lady who has horses in a field by ours found the ceramic egg in her field, so something had taken it.

Have you got any magpies around? I've heard that they will take eggs.

Mojisola

poohbear59 wrote: »

I have to admit that after having hens for nine years I have never checked pubic bones. what am I looking for?

This - http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110313212642AAKzZPl - gives some help and there are pictures on here - https://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/livestock/poultry/bba01s13.html - and here - http://ahomegrownjournal.blogspot.com/2010/03/chicken-culling-101.html.

rachbc

It definately sounds like somethign is taking them if you have no eggs at all - can you leave a dummy egg and see where it ends up? If it was us hub would be setting up a webcam to watch what was happening!

Athome1

One of my chickens is not well today. I noticed a bit of blood on her rear (and an egg she’d laid) a couple of days ago, so we washed it and checked and thought it was just a ‘blood feather’ (where she or someone else, pulls a feather out). She seemed ok the next day but yesterday she was a bit fluffed up and this morning there was blood again. Once more we washed her and clipped the feathers away and spray with anti peck just in case she was being pecked. Kept checking her this morning and she was in a nesting box sort of straining, I thought he must have a broken egg inside her so brought her in again and (having cut my nails, scrubbed my hands and used Vaseline) I checked for bit of broken shell etc in her vent (poor chicken was very good,with only the occasional tensing of feet and the odd ‘Buk’ noise). There wasn’t any shell only a substance like egg white and marks that I think may be peck marks. So after drying her, I applied a liberal coating of Vaseline and a good spray of ‘Anti-Peck’.
We managed to get some soluable Asprin down her before she realised how vile it was and wouldn’t open her beak any more. She’s now back in a clean nesting box. She is about 18months old and is normally the boss hen, any advice would be gratefully received.