delightfuldisguise
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A welsummer chicken not layingCould anyone give me any clues on why my welsummer chicken has not started laying eggs yet. She must be almost a year old now. The other chickens in the run started laying months ago (a polish and an araucana-cross).[/list]
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chez
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Probably just her particular breed make-up and the time of year. If you 'catch them wrong' and they get to point of lay at the wrong time of year, then they tend not to bother until the days start getting bit longer.
I think that also the dark egg things comes in to it. If she's from a particularly dark-egg laying welsummer strain, then she will probably not be quite such a good layer - something to do with putting the pigment on the egg. So she might be a late starter.
Is she reddening up at all? I'd expect some sort of action in the next three weeks or so ...
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delightfuldisguise
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welsummer chicken not started laying yet - about 1 year oldi should've mentioned we live in Australia, so the days have been getting longer for a while now. I know hot days put the others off the lay, but she's just never started.
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chez
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Ah! That's a vital bit of information that was missing! 
In that case, I would say she's a very late starter. Are her comb and wattles getting red at all?
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delightfuldisguise
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Well they're red, but I suppose not really intense. Do they really flush up when they are ready to lay.
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RichardW
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Is "she" a "he"?
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Chickem
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| RichardW wrote: | | Is "she" a "he"? |
Thats what i was thinking we had a wellsummer for quite a while that we were convinced was female ......untill he started crowing 
welcome BTW
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chez
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A picture might be nice? Particularly if it was of a nice sunny antipodean background to cheer us all up
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delightfuldisguise
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Click to see full size image
How do you tell! She (i'm hoping) does act very henny. sits in the saw dust scratches around with the other ones. There's been no sign of crowing or trying to. we did have a rooster and he was completely different in behaviour. Breeder was adamant she was a female when we got her at about 8 weeks old - said it was easy to tell with welsummers.
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delightfuldisguise
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I'll leave your collective brains at work. It's bed time this side of the planet.
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joanne
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She does look exactly like my Welsummer girl - I've got nothing to suggest but my girls last year were very slow to start laying - I very nearly gave up - she doesn't look like she's that red
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SandraR
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These are my Welsummer pullets at 23/24 weeks old a few days before they came into lay.They were hatched in April and came into lay in October. The cockerel looked very different quite early on.
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delightfuldisguise
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Click to see full size image
Here she is today. The other photo was a few months ago. She doesn't look like a rooster at all. But her comb and wattles aren't very red. Has she just not hit puberty yet!
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chez
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Definitely a hen. She's not developed spurs or anything peculiar like that that might indicate she's a mule, has she? We've got a vorwerk hen that is 'mostly' a lady - but has spurs. She doesn't lay.
She looks like a very nice lady, to me.
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Annette H
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She looks just like my welsummer ladies. They are not the most prolific layers and haven't laid for ages now. When they do lay though the comb is much redder than your girl.
We have had welsummer cockerels and there is no mistaking the boys from the girls quite early on.
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delightfuldisguise
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What are "spurs" - i thought they were something to do with horses!
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SandraR
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Spurs are like claws at the back of the leg a short way up, they start off just as buds' Usually on cockerels.
Your hen should become redder around the face, wattles and comb before she lays and will probaly become noiser and pop in and out of the box a few times ( you probably already know all this  )
I have two from the same hatch as my others, who have yet to come into lay, they are now 29 weeks. They are however destined for the pot - one is too small and the other doesn't look right, her colouring isn't good, she looks a little masculine and has 'fuzz' on her legs.
It shouldn't be too much longer before yours lay...the waiting seems forever, doesn't it.
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delightfuldisguise
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Ages ago she went through a phase of being very agitated and making a lot of noise, and sitting in the nesting area for ages. But she seems to have stopped all that again.
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Shan
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Our Welsummers only started laying from about 28 weeks on. Give her time.
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