New chucks not laying

[DaveEllon]

Well the girls are having a whale of a time now. They spent the whole day outside in the garden yesterday and went to bed with crops the size of grapefruits. They barely touched the layer pellets now there's yummy outside food to eat. They were waiting inside the garage door for me this morning again and shot out to forage with Clare as soon as I opened the door. Two nice big eggies in the rabbit hutch when I looked. Maybe one of them is still not laying or there's another secret cache I haven't yet found.

They've suddenly decided I'm actually not going to eat them and are now milling around me quite happily, coming when they're called and eyeing me hopefully for treats like a slice of bread to share, the occasional one of which has definitely helped win them over.

It was hilarious watching their first tentative steps outside last week. They'd get a few feet from the garage door then something innocuous would happen like a pigeon would coo, their heads shot up like WTF?, one would panic, the other would panic because the first was, then it was a mad squawking dash for safety.

Sam the labrador is happy too because there are now enough eggs for him to have a raw one on his dry food every day which he loves. Clare seems to enjoy having a couple of pals to knock about with and spends quite a lot of time with them although she still usually heads off up to the farm at some point each day to fill up on spilled animal feed.

I'm hoping Carol and Diane don't start following her up there too soon before they've learned to steer well clear of tractors. I fret about Clare every day until she comes home safely but she's very canny about vehicles and has survived them for a year now.

[ChickenLane]

Last year in August/Sept I got my first three chucks from a local battery farm. I think they were brand new point of lay and they all gave an egg a day from the start. Two got taken by a fox this year so I got another two a week ago to keep the remaining one, Clare, company. Clare still lays an egg a day every day without fail at about 9am every day. The new ones are from the same batch as her so a year old now and a life entirely spent inside in a big shed with 11,000 others. Pretty grotty condition with feathers missing. They laid an egg each the next day which were probably already inside them and then stopped dead. Not a thing from either in a week.

I'm wondering how long it will be before they settle in here and start laying again. They're both still very scared and won't leave the garage they live in. They don't really know what outside is. They're the same age as Clare and from the same farm and the same batch so if she can still lay then so can they but they don't seem to want to.

Well done on trying to do your part to give battery hens a new life

This is quite common when you relocate a chicken it can take them several weeks to settle down into their new coop before they will lay again.

I know THCC have a great article which should help you: http://www.thehappychickencoop.com/7-re ... ying-eggs/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The only thing I'm thinking is- are they broody?

This would be very unlikely for battery hens as they have normally been breed to remove their broodiness but you did mention they won't leave the garage...

[DaveEllon]

Well an eggington from each of the new girls today. At 10am Diane was in one of the straw filled tyres in the garage looking very intent and when I moved her out of the way she had a right old go at my hand with her beak before budging but there was a nice little egg under her. Then she started the "I've laid an egg song" which went on for about 10 minutes at 120 decibels like it was some major achievement.

Walked the dog and there's another egg in the same tyre from Carol when I got back. Clare has gone off up to the farm as usual so it can't be hers. Anyway they're both far too small to be Clare's. Hers are usually about 80g. Diane's was a paltry 57g and Carol's 72g. No doubt as they get used to being here and feed up on nutritious greens and wormies their eggs will get bigger. Good to see them both laying though and so happy rooting about in the garden.

[DaveEllon]

I'll call a halt to this thread now. The two new girls are fully integrated and following me around the garden like puppies. They trot after me clucking away happily to themselves and me, they're both fairly ok with being picked up and cuddled and their lost feathers are growing back really fast. Diane almost has a full tail again and Carol's bare back is now almost healed up and regrown. It's really nice being able to give them a happy life after their misery in the battery farm. The eggs are a bonus. I just love making little animals happy.

[ChickenCarol]

That is just so lovely.

[KarenE]

Lovely news

But listen - no need to finish the thread off - why don't you think about starting a diary on the diary section? It's a great way to keep a record of the girls' progress, and fantastic to look back on

[DaveEllon]

Well I'm slowly getting to grips with who's laying and who isn't. Clare has been regular as clockwork for a year with an egg a day every day in the tyre she sleeps in but the arrival of Carol and Diane have clearly discombobulated her routine a bit. It's settled down to just two eggs a day in the garage from the three but I've had a job working out whether one of those is always Clare's and one of the newbies is not laying or otherwise. I've actually watched Diane lay an egg in the tyre accompanied by much grunting and puffing but I've never actually observed Carol lay one.

This morning I let them out of the garage at 9.30 and Clare instantly headed round the side of the house to the front garden like a bullet with the other two in hot pursuit to see what she was up to. I grabbed the towel round my waist which was all I had on and tried to keep up without it falling off. Clare dived straight under a big pile of leylandii branches I've had lying ready for burning in the incinerator and there in a little nook scraped out of the fallen needles were two lovely big eggs which I grabbed up before she could sit on them. She then settled back into her nook again looking fairly intent so I was hoping for another development. So the two eggs in the garage for at least the last couple of days have been from both of the newbies and it seems all three are laying which is great.

I'll bet Clare has been laying in other places round the garden or farm as well since the newbies arrived and I've lost all that production but never mind. Two a day is enough for me and t'dog.

STOP PRESS

In the middle of typing this I put my jeans on and went back out to see if Clare had dropped today's egg in the same nook or not. There were three more there already, all still piping hot!! The two new girls must have watched her and thought this'll do us ok and popped their own out in quick succession next to hers in the space of ten minutes.

My little cup runneth over. Five new eggies for the pan in one morning and both the new girls are now obviously laying. They're looking champion too. Feathers regrown in all the bare spots where they'd been pecked to death in the battery farm, they've put on weight and body condition, they're so happy and friendly now, following me around begging for treats. You wouldn't think they were the same scrawny, terrified, bare skinned wretches I put in the back of the car just a few weeks ago. I wish every egg farm could be free range even if that cost us a few pence more an egg rather than the misery they live in being pecked bare by their crowded neighbours.

I shall now do my world famous golf ball trick. I'll replace the eggs in the nook with a couple of golf balls so the chucks think it's still a viable nest and then hopefully they'll not go looking for yet another hidey hole to bamboozle me with. If I can get anywhere near a regular three eggs a day from all of them I'll be over t'moon.

[Richard]

Lovely story - great !!!

They will lay where they lay.

My best one was probably the Lawn Mower Box.

Keep up the good work.

Richard

[DaveEllon]

I knew there was a good reason for getting a couple more chucks. I don't even tend to eat eggs much myself, at least I never bought them before getting my own chickens. I don't (can't) bake or really do any cooking other than what goes in the microwave but I scramble up a panful at a time when I can be bothered and just slap them on everything for a couple of days. The dog loves a raw one on his dry food every day though. I just mainly like having the chucks around and giving them a nice life in the countryside.

Anyhoo, the nice lady van driver from Asda home shopping came with the groceries today. I tend to order for the same delivery slot time every week so I see her quite a lot and she's a lovely cheerful lady. Today it was chucking it down and the poor quine had to hump the boxes of shopping from the van to the back door in the pouring rain so once we were done I gave her half a dozen lovely fresh free range eggs to help make up for the misery of the job. I'm sure she'll put them to better use with her family than I tend to do and the extra eggs from my new arrivals from the battery farm have spread a little happiness around which is what we all want I think.

[perchy]

How lovely, I am sure the lady from Asda was thrilled, I use to love giving eggs away, people seem to treat them much better when they know where they have come from

[DaveEllon]

Sweet. I scored a sack of pig feed from the farm for the chucks yesterday. There haven't been any pigs up there for a couple of years but they've got a couple of hundred in now and they feed them on some sort of powder in big hoppers. Clare loves it. She's always up there rooting around for spilled pig feed. I scraped up a bit of spilled stuff myself last week but it didn't last them long so I asked if I could pinch some from the big pile of tons of it in the barn they fill the hoppers from with a tractor bucket. No problem they said so I filled as big a sack as I could carry and humped it back down the track. That will eke out the layer pellets for a month or two. Not that they need much much extra feed now they're all out in the garden every day eating dock leaves, grass and bugs. Still, it's always nice to get something for free.

[DaveEllon]

Ah these little monkeys are sent to try one. Egg production has now actually reached an almost reliable 3 per day from the 3 chucks but they do keep finding places to hide them in to baffle me. Today someone had a little accident in the rabbit hutch at the back of the garage they like to lay in before I let them out each day. Two nice big brown eggs plus a broken one that must have got sat on a bit too hard. So I thought I'd better clear the sticky mess out and replace the straw. I've got a couple of big sacks of it standing next to the hutch that the farmer let me fill from the bedding in one of the cow barns.

Cleaned out the old sticky mess, grabbed a handful of fresh straw from the nearest sack and put it in, went for another handful and there about six inches down are two lovely big eggs. Someone has flapped up onto the top of the sack, burrowed in and left me a little pressie to find later. I checked them in a pan full of water and they both sink so not too old to eat yet. They could have been there for weeks though.

Yesterday morning I only found two eggs in the hutch but in the afternoon Diane was yelling her head off near the hawthorn hedge in the field next to the house in a very typical "Look how clever I am, I've just laid an egg" fashion. The hedge is near as dammit impenetrable though to someone my size and although I had a look around as best I could there was no egg to be seen. I bet it's in there somewhere though.

[bikesandbirdsbob]

Hi ,Free grass cuttings ,left overs (bread etc) , blackberries and apples , chickens (rescued) pallets wood , coops , sample pellets marriages , Not often. Never free eggs as never get enough to give away . Free photo shoots and chicken stroking.
Bob