And then they stopped laying.

[WatchTower]

Earlier this year I bought a bunch of chicks and raised them up so we could have fresh eggs. Everything was going well until about 2 weeks ago. We were getting on average of 14 to 18 eggs a day and gradually the numbers of eggs were increasing. Then we ran into 2 problems. The first problems was that another of our animals got into the feed bin and gobbled down a bunch of the poultry feed (luckily she was ok and didn't get very sick from all that she ate) which made me have to cut the chickens feed in half for about 5 days. The second problem was a series of storms came through and we lost power to the poultry areas which I had set up with night lighting on timers to give them only 6 to 8 hours of dark).

Then they stopped laying. I was able to finally fix the lighting issues and they are back to their regular quantity of feed but they haven't started laying again (except for one lone hen who is still laying). Has anuone encountered this problem before? Any advice on how to get them laying again?

 

[ChickNhood]

The loss of light may have forced molt...any signs of molt?

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Cutting their food in half decreased their protein intake significantly. This would definitely affect egg production. Also changes in lighting and weather could have an effect. I think they probably just need time to adjust and eat. Maybe give a little extra protein for snacks.

 

[WatchTower]

No, not that I can tell. Although it wasn't that long ago that I had to clip wing feathers because some of them were ablt to clear the fence and I didn't want them getting eaten by rural predators.

 

[WatchTower]

Putting their food in half decreased there protein intake significantly. This would definitely affect egg product. Also changes in lighting and weather could have an effect. I think they probably just need time to adjust and eat. Maybe give a little extra protein for snacks.

I had my suspicions about this and have been hoping that given a bit of time they would just start laying again. Like I said in my original post, it wasn't that long ago that this had happened (last week) and I got them back on full rations last Friday.