[tezlin]

Hi Guys
Just a quickie.  We have had our 4 lovely ladies now for approx 8 weeks. 3 of the girls started laying between 4-6 weeks ago but the copperblack still hasn't laid. She did appear to have a bit of a snotty nose when we first had her but this cleared up quite quickly and did not transfer to the other birds. She now seems fine eating and drinking as much as the others and runs round the garden quite happily without any signs of respiritory wheeze or difficulties. Her comb is still not as large or as red as the other ladies are and I know this is often an indicator of age and reddiness to lay. So my question is: Is there such a thing as a barren chook or do you think she is still a little to immature yet to be laying.
Thanks
Lin x

[carolbriar]

Hi Tezlin, how old are your hens?  I have a Light Sussex hen who has a lovely large red comb and she is coming up to a year soon and she has not laid any eggs at all   We call her Mrs Pickle as she always seemed to be complaining (or that's what it sounded like).  Recently she has started half squatting if I try and pick her up - something she has never done before and also she came out of the house one day and stood on the ramp announcing she had laid an egg - it was a false alarm.  No sign of any egg at any time from her.  I went out straight away to check just incase.  I also have two hens that have small combs that are not really red like some of the others but they are happily laying.  It depends very much on the individual hen.  You never know, your copper black might surprise you soon - hope so.

[vicky_b]

Hi Lin,

We've had our 3 ladies for a couple of month now. 2 of them starting laying very quickly, but one has yet to start.

I think she's just a bit younger and since she's in perfect health, I'm not too worried. Her comb is small and pale, but she has started to crouch when i stroke her, which is meant to be a sign that she's ready to lay soon, plus she's spent some time in the nesting box, practicing maybe  

We watched one of the other hens, Penny, go from small pale comb to red comb and laying, so I'm pretty relaxes about the non-layer now I've seen the other one turn.

I must say - their characters do seem to change when the start to lay! Penny went from shy little cutie to brash adult! My yet to lay hen, Lucy, is so sweet right now, i bet she changes too!  

[GrannieAnnie]

Some of our pure breeds didn't start to lay until they were 40 weeks old, but GENERALLY speaking, hybrids will start to lay between 17 and 26 weeks.  However one of our oldest Amberlinks "Rosie" who we re-homed last year and we thought was a cockerel, started to lay for her new owner a few months ago at 2 and a half years old!!!

So there's hope for your girl yet!