Stopped Laying Completely

[Nicole2845]

We have a Barred Rock who is just under 2 years old. Her first year, she laid big, beautiful, brown eggs daily. Last fall we added four new girls. Around that time she stopped laying and then had some soft eggs that broke when she laid them. We had to pull a couple out. She stopped laying for the winter. This spring, she never started again except for a couple of soft eggs here and there. We are baffled! She shouldn't have any stress, she isn't sick, there is just nothing externally wrong. They have a fenced run with lot of room for 6 chickens. There are no predators. She actually goes into the nesting box just about every day and is in there for quite a while but doesn't lay. She is not eggbound. The girls did have mites that we treated them all for a couple of weeks ago, so maybe that is related. I've added calcium to their diet, really done everything I have read you can/should do. Any ideas?

 

[nuthatched]

What do you feed them? Laying lots of soft eggs could be a sign of reproductive problems.

 

[CalBickieMomma]

I recently had a similar problem with my two EEs (one just over two years, the other age unknown (got her from a friend who found her in their yard)) and one of my RIRs, also just over two years.

The two EEs are back with the flock - had the unknown age one separated for a while because I kept noticing her crop wouldn’t empty at night and wanted to observe/start treating her before it got bad. Still hasn’t cleared up 100%, but she‘s acting normal.

My other EE started laying soft eggs about a month ago and I’ve not seen her lay anything in the past few weeks.

My RIR showed the most concerning signs: lethargic, puffed up, tail down. She’d also been laying soft eggs and I even encouraged her to push out a wrinkled one and soft one during an epsom salt bath a couple weeks ago. I’ve had her inside and treating her as if she has egg peritonitis. She’s been slowly improving but I’m keeping her in at night for now.

They have access to oyster shells (I feed All Flock because I have a rooster with them) all the time.

My prognosis with all these problems: an internal worm infestation. It would explain the blockage problem with my EE and also explain why some stopped laying (not getting enough nutrition because of the worms). I also have a chronic mite problem - I can’t seem to get rid of all of them, but I’ve been using the spray with clove oil to keep them at bay.

My older EE expelled a large clump of worms while inside () so I decided to treat everyone. Just finished up with the treatment, so fingers crossed it helps fix the problem.

Maybe your girl has a worm infestation...?

 

[SurferchickinSB]

We have a Barred Rock who is just under 2 years old. Her first year, she laid big, beautiful, brown eggs daily. Last fall we added four new girls. Around that time she stopped laying and then had some soft eggs that broke when she laid them. We had to pull a couple out. She stopped laying for the winter. This spring, she never started again except for a couple of soft eggs here and there. We are baffled! She shouldn't have any stress, she isn't sick, there is just nothing externally wrong. They have a fenced run with lot of room for 6 chickens. There are no predators. She actually goes into the nesting box just about every day and is in there for quite a while but doesn't lay. She is not eggbound. The girls did have mites that we treated them all for a couple of weeks ago, so maybe that is related. I've added calcium to their diet, really done everything I have read you can/should do. Any ideas?

She probably actually is a egg bound or has laid internally. She also could have an infection if the eggs were broken and you pulled them out of her.

 

[buddyellie]

We have a Barred Rock who is just under 2 years old. Her first year, she laid big, beautiful, brown eggs daily. Last fall we added four new girls. Around that time she stopped laying and then had some soft eggs that broke when she laid them. We had to pull a couple out. She stopped laying for the winter. This spring, she never started again except for a couple of soft eggs here and there. We are baffled! She shouldn't have any stress, she isn't sick, there is just nothing externally wrong. They have a fenced run with lot of room for 6 chickens. There are no predators. She actually goes into the nesting box just about every day and is in there for quite a while but doesn't lay. She is not eggbound. The girls did have mites that we treated them all for a couple of weeks ago, so maybe that is related. I've added calcium to their diet, really done everything I have read you can/should do. Any ideas?

I have four RI Reds that have stopped laying. They seem to have the same behavior. Living in Florida, I bring them ice cubes for their clean water several times daily. They love to play with the cubes. I recently said good by to my turkey roasting pan to give them some cool water to play in. Do they just need a rest? I use Predator Guard around their coop so they don't get attacked. The county came out last week to spray for mosquitos but did not come inside the fence. They have been out before and the chickens never reacted. They get some fresh veggies daily and it is always fresh. Any ideas?

 

[SurferchickinSB]

I have four RI Reds that have stopped laying. They seem to have the same behavior. Living in Florida, I bring them ice cubes for their clean water several times daily. They love to play with the cubes. I recently said good by to my turkey roasting pan to give them some cool water to play in. Do they just need a rest? I use Predator Guard around their coop so they don't get attacked. The county came out last week to spray for mosquitos but did not come inside the fence. They have been out before and the chickens never reacted. They get some fresh veggies daily and it is always fresh. Any ideas?

Whenever my girls start having problems like that, I start giving them Tums, just break it up into about six pieces and feed it to them. I do that about twice a day and then the problem usually corrects itself within a couple days. Hopefully she doesn’t have any egg yolk that broke inside her, because that will cause an infection.