[elibump]

Just realised that our young (?) chickens are now 9 months old but there are no signs of a sign of a comb on any of them and no eggs at all yet.  Is this a problem or am I just doing my usual and worrying for nothing.  Any information would be helpful.  I would search on the general information section but I don't really know what to look for. 

Thanks

Carolyn xx

[Aunt Sally]

9 months as in 39 weeks    are you sure ?

Tell us a bit about their breed and history.

[elibump]

Oh er ummm, well. I know this will sound really ignorant of me but,  3 white, 1 black: mothers and Elwood given to us by someone who had to get rid of his chickens and we took them that is all we know about their family history. 

Yes I do mean nine months 39 weeks, that's why when I looked at the calendar and really realised their age I worried. 

The mother hens laid very well up until this brood arrived and then stopped.
 Thanks for any help Aunt Sally

Carolyn xx

[elibump]

After investigations with t'interweb and neighbours, I believe that the mothers were perhaps leghorns, one black 3 white.  Father perhaps a Rhode Island red but rather unsure.  Neighbours reckon (from their knowledge of previous owner)  there is some naked neck in there but I really don't see any hints of that at all perhaps just because they are such a popular breed around here.  The neighbours basically feel that they are a Heinz 57 of chickens and keep saying just 'poulet' (chicken) when I ask the breed. The original hens did very well in their ark but stopped laying when they all went broody at the same time and never went back to it.  The daughters have been roaming free-range in the garden until recently (eating 3 whole beds of brassicas in the process) and have had supplements of kitchen scraps and corn.

Basic advice from here is kill them, don't eat them - because no one knows why they aren't maturing - and restart with an entire new flock.  Possibly too much inter-breeding by the owner of the parent birds. 

Picture below is of one of the mothers.

Does this sound like good advice?

Carolyn xx

[cathangirl]

As they are free ranging, are you sure that they are not laying their eggs in a dark hidey-hole some-where?  It's what they would do in the wild.
Maybe a daft question, but have you tried keeping them in a run next to their coop, to see if they will lay "at home?"
cathangirl

[elibump]

They aren't free ranging any more they are now in a run and the concern I have is that they don't seem to be maturing; they still don't have combs as well as not laying eggs.

Carolyn xx

[cathangirl]

P.S. It's not the size of the comb, it's the colour that really counts.  2 of mine have teensy weensy combs, but what there is is red.

[andreadon]

hi!
i would class that as a comb 
it's a nice red colour, too, so either she's on her way to laying, or as cathangirl says, she's laying them somewhere you don't know!
try looking under bushes and on the compost heap.

and maybe put a couple of golf balls in the nest box to give them the idea. (althoughm if you find out where they're laying, at least you'll be able to find them in the future....)
 

[WhatCameFirst]

Andreadon, I think that photo is a parent, not one of the combless ones.

[andreadon]

Andreadon, I think that photo is a parent, not one of the combless ones.

oops!
i should read more carefully, shouldn't i!!