Hens not laying! What's going on?

[mama of 4 girls]

We have 10 hen's who haven't laid since mid December. 7 are approaching 2 years old. 3 are approaching a year old. I got one egg on January 24. That's it. Nothing more. The flock looks healthy and happy. They're well fed and always have access to fresh water. I thought that maybe it was the cold and lack of light, but it's starting to warm up and days are getting longer. I don't see signs of egg eating. Any thoughts?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

What breeds, some will quit and start during winter, some has to do with temperature shifts, and things like drinking less water because it's cold will slow or stop laying. Most hens begin to slow down laying after 2 years old, so time of year plus hens age and you might not get winter eggs.

 

[mama of 4 girls]

We have 2 buff orpington,2 australorp, 2 barred rock, 4 easter eggers. I remember that my oldest hens initial lay came last year (2014) around Christmas. They laid regularly through that cold winter. We were getting about 6 or 7 a day in July. Around October the hens went into a molt and production declined almost instantly. That coincided with my newest three starting to lay. We regularly collected at least 3 green eggs but were lucky to get only 1 or 2 brown.It may be age, but even my 3 newest eyes have stopped as well. The one egg we got in January was an egger egg. I expected to collect more this week, but sadly no more. It is just frustrating.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

What are you feeding them, I switched from layer to an all flock last fall and I have a few that resumed laying about a month ago, my all flock has 20% protein where my layer was 16%, I also feed some scratch and corn, I was obviously diluting my protein too much, they need extra energy to molt, stay warm and lay eggs. So I would try a higher protein feed to see if that gets them going again.

 

[mama of 4 girls]

We did have them on 16% layer feed, but just switched them over on Tuesday to an 18% extra egg production crumble. That was the highest % I found at the feed store.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

It might be enough to kick them into production, give it a week or two and cut down or out any extras that aren't higher protein.

 

[mama of 4 girls]

Thanks for your suggestions. I do appreciate it It's just frustrating to have to buy store bought eggs now.Hoping things will turn around for us soon!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Good luck, I was really surprised how upping protein got my younger girls to start laying so soon after the molt, I will continue with feeding a higher protein.