help need with my chickens

i have had my new chickens at home for about 2 months. I got them when they were about 20 weeks making them now nearly 30 weeks old. I am feeding them the same food as they were brought up on and done everything that i was told to do.
They have not laid a single egg and i am wondering if it is something that i am doing wrong. I have even tried to put fake eggs in their nest box to try and tempt them in to laying. Is it wish full thinking that they may lay soon or shall i have to wait for the warmer weather to come along in the spring?
Any suggestions would be gratefully recieved and many thanks in advance for readind this post

Alex Royall

hi fastmonkey - welcome to this site ! alot of us arent getting many eggs at the moment - hens tend to stop laying or at least slow up when they dont get enough hours of daylight - this should get better once the days start to get longer, but as your hens would be considered to be point of lay (about 18 weeks onwards) they may well wait until spring to lay. ive got a girl who is about 40 weeks old and still waiting for her first egg! - tat is unusual though. i bought 3 point of lay hens in the summer and not had eggs from them yet.  what type of hens have you got?

Hold in there, they will lay eventually (as long as they are girls) and it is so special, worth all the wait. You will get tiny eggs to begin with and they get larger as time goes on.

Remember to come back and tell us when they lay and we love photos of the first egg

My chucks are between 24 & 30 wks and we get an egg from each most days now,including eggs from Little Dorrit our' Fenton Blue' who has been off colour for a few weeks with a cough and sneezles.did'nt think she would lay until the new year!

We feed them layers pellets and mixed corn & seed ,have tried cooked peelings and fresh peelings but absolutely no takers for some reason.
Does anyone prefer to use mash and can I ask why?

My girls have warm layers mash first thing (sometimes a teeny bit tooo warm methinks, as they sorta go "oooh heck!" as they peck) followed by lunchtime spinach and a handful each of corn at 3, to tide them over til morning 
I do believe they only eat what they need, and that they do need that little bit more at this time of year. Any excess is always left behind, as proof that they don't pig out.
JMHO
I'm interested to know what your girls are fed fastmonkey, since you have stuck with the breeder's feeding plan but your hens may require more now?

Good point vietta, forgot to mention that there's always a feeder of layer's pellets out, too.

We can't treat them like kids and offer 3 meals a day - they feed all day as they need, and more so as they produce eggs. Poo the size of apples, omg  So there must always be food available for them.

As for your point re greens, mine too! There isn't a fat lot growing in their enclosure at the mo, in fact nowt   So I give them chopped spinach every afternoon. There is grass in the mash I noticed, but not nearly enough I don't think, just the odd blade. Anyway, they go crazy for the greens, much more so than in summer. Clearly they need it.

I just accept that the birds know better than me what they need, so try to cover all corners