It seems I have a couple of late bloomers on my hands. While one of my new chickens has been laying since mid-August, the other two have not yet started producing eggs.
At first, I thought the layer was Rita because the first few eggs were light brown and on the small side. The shells of the new eggs have darkened, though, and I'm now thinking Janice, my Cuckoo Marans, might be the layer. She's got her full comb and wattles and seems calmer than the other two new girls, which could also indicate she's the one making the eggs.
The only weird thing is that the eggs seem too small to come from such a big chicken. Janice is basically the same size as Tina, my Black Sex-Link, but the eggs are about 3/4 the size of Tina's eggs. The mystery will be solved as soon as the other two girls start laying. Hopefully, they'll get off their feathered butts and make some eggs soon.
Hey Audrey! Its Malia, your chickens' surrogate mama for their first month or so. I wanted to check on the status of your chickens and I see that they're slow to get started. Our silver-laced wyandotte started laying a while ago, probably 2 months or so. At first her eggs were really small, but now they're more like grocery store size Medium.
The buff orpington and one easter egger started just about 2 weeks ago, at 6 months of age. The easter egger was pretty inconsistent at first but is laying regularly now. She has blue-green eggs.
The other easter egger, who has been the leader of our flock from the beginning, hasn't laid yet. Even though it's obvious that she's not a rooster, she sort of acts like she is one and even makes a fake cock-a-doodle-do sound at times. She's aggressive and protective of the coop and the other girls. I just read on the internet that in a flock with no rooster, sometimes a hen quits laying and takes on the role. Have you ever heard of this?!
So maybe we both have some late bloomers on our hands. Maybe it is the cool summer. Who knows! I'll keep you posted if our fake rooster girl ever starts giving eggs.
Perhaps they need a rooster to get them motivated? I worked on a farm for a summer selling produce and the chickens would produce tons more eggs when there was a rooster around, but when he left (because of noise complaints) the egg count went way down. So, maybe invite a rooster over for an afternoon?
Malia, thanks for the update! Believe it or not, as of today (10/9), our Silver Laced Wyandotte and our Easter Egger are still not laying! At this point, I'm just annoyed. You're right that the non-layers are more aggressive, but in my experience they're all like that until they start to lay. I honestly have no idea why these two girls are not laying eggs. Hopefully they haven't both decided to be the "rooster." I am holding out hope that they'll do it one day, although now that the days are shorter, who knows. They're just lucky I don't eat them!