HELP!!!!!!!!!!! ALL of my hens have stopped laying eggs!

[Peplers chicks]

It would be good to observe if she is broody, and if she is, get some fertilized eggs underneath her

 

[Peplers chicks]

I have a white cochin hen she is siting on the nest but there is no eggs under her and she hasn't been laying... What do I do?????

It would be good to observe if she is broody, and if she is, get some fertilized eggs underneath her

 

[Hoosierhennypen]

My eight young hens have stopped laying suddenly as well. They are only about 7 months old and were just starting to all lay consistently. My husband and I were gone for 5 days, leaving our 12 yr old, and (grandma) in charge of the chickens. We told our neighbor she could come collect the eggs and have them so my 12 yr old didn't bother with the eggs. Apparently the neighbor never collected bacause there were eggs everywhere, in the run, the coop, the nests, ... Those girls haven't layed but one or 2 eggs since we returned home over a week ago now. I think the upset in routine must've stressed them. Going to try adding my oyster shell and salt like someone else suggested, and get the lights going, although Iv'e never seen such a sudden halt just from shorter daylight hours.

 

[CockadoodleMimi]

I am so new at raising my 3 hens that I'm not sure why all 3 of them just stopped laying..period! 1 is molting I think because of all the feathers I've been finding and I've seen her shake them off. But the other 2, not sure what's going on. I read the article posted previously and none of those things really apply to my girls. They get a high quality layer pellets, scratch, and fresh well water every day. They also get romaine lettuce, grapes, yogurt, mill worms, nothing citrus and they get out to free range for a few hours each day. The coop is spacious with vents, the run has new fallen leaves, straw, and sandy dirt. Are they just spoiled brats? lol I refuse to buy store-bought eggs and really would like to know, if this is normal behavior, when I can expect to get eggs again. We were getting 3 every day. Now they sit on the nest but nothing.

 

[barnaclebob]

how many hours of light are your chickens getting? Do you have a light in the coop? Mine seem to need 13-15 hours of light a day.

 

[CockadoodleMimi]

The days are getting shorter but we haven't had a time change yet. So they are getting about 9-10 hours of daylight. They usually lay in the mornings and sometimes before 2pm.

 

[Rebe]

How much salt do you give your hen's?

 

[gilcamp4]

I was wondering what you are talking about salt, we have had chickens for 4 years now and we do move them around most are young now they should have started to lay last week, but nothing yet, we also have 6 that are about 13 months were laying every day, I also have had them stop today nothing yesterday one egg, we also have young ones that will start to lay next month, I have a light I use from 5 to 9am and then 5 to 8 pm I have done this every year it is on a timer, we have feed them the same feed laying pellets and in winter we use crashed corn and oats at about 4pm, they never stopped in winter, we have 31 made a camper into a coop

 

[RoyalPayne]

And fat chickens don't lay. If you are feeding yours laying feed, scratch, and kitchen waste, it could be they are too fat. There are numerous threads on how to tell if your chckens are carrying to much weight. Try eliminating either the scratch or the kitchen waste. Give it a month, fat chickens won't lose weight overnight, or even in a week. Also, calculate the amount of protein they are receiving. Layer pellets are formulated with the correct amount of protein, add anything to that and the protein count goes down. Unless what you are adding is protein. There are threads, here, on BYC, that help you calculate protein amounts.

 

[gilcamp4]

we have moved our chickens into our screen house with a small run, we are remodeling the coop, we are also going to move it, not sure just what we are going to do are where we will move it but we always do a good cleaning of house in fall, we also have nest they have never used so we are taken them down as we do have 2 that sleep in them, but no one lays eggs in them if we take them out they may roost.