Okay I know each hen will reach maturity in her own time but I have four hens all about the same age and one is not laying, the other three are. Now the one who isn't laying is at the bottom of the pecking order, I think she might even be bellow the three younger wyandots. Her comb got bloodied up a bit right around the time the other three came into laying. I'm wondering if they are some how keeping her from being able to lay, or if she's just not as healthy and therefore not laying? Is there anyway to know? I'm trying to figure out if she should be culled from the flock or given more time to come around? Or if there is something I can do to help her out. Her comb is not bloody anymore but it never grew back as big as it was, and she's definitely a little shy around the other girls but nothing that makes me think she's in danger. Thanks for any and all advice.
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Just thought I'd say posting here seemed to work. Yesterday we got four eggs. She must have heard I was thinking of getting rid of her.
:)
She's not thin, the only sign of "abuse" by the other hens is her comb which is healed other than it never grew back as big which surprised me. They pecked it bloody and down to stubs right when the others came into lay and they haven't done it since. I'm not sure she didn't lay a couple eggs, someone was laying extreme thin shelled / no shelled eggs about three times but nothing more has come of it. I added oyster shell to their run and haven't seen any since but I wonder if they could be eating them. They don't go after the regular ones but they did go after the thin/no shell eggs when they happened. I'm checking regularly though. The other girls started laying in early June so it's been over a month. She's part of the same clutch as one of the girls laying, and the other two are actually younger than her.
How long since the others started to lay?
Feel the others' keels an then hers. Is she thin? They may not be letting her eat.