37 Chickens stop laying simultaneously!?!?

[Sorin]

Ok, so I am actually posting this for a friend that does not have Internet. She has a flock of 37 hens, all Astraulorps and Red sex links. They are all under a year old, she has been getting 17-19 eggs a day from them until recently. A couple of weeks ago she bought a silkie hen and unfortunately did not quarantine her before mixing her with the rest of the flock. Since then her egg count has consistently been going down, and she got no eggs today. One chicken has died, she said she did not see any symptoms of sickness, nor are there any signs of sickness in the other hens. The only thing is that now she is not getting any eggs! :/. Has anyone else heard of this or have any ideas if something is wrong? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[RoosterAddict99]

Unfortunately, that silkie was probably carrying something. I feel for your friend, that happened to me once too

. None of my chickens died, thankfully, except the poor lame chick I bought from craigslist (she was the carrier). All my girls stopped laying at once. They eventually started laying again but, we had hardly any eggs for a month.

 

[Sorin]

Thanks for the reply I'm glad to hear someone else has experienced this, I wonder what it is though? Well, that's good news your hens started laying again, at least I can give my friend some good news!

 

[theFox]

A newcomer disrupts things and that all by itself can cause hens to stop laying for a bit.