All of my chickens stopped laying eggs except for one. What could be the reason? Please anyone?

[carrottop30]

I am having a similar issue... all but one or two of my hens have stopped laying. I am on Long Island, NY and at first I had thought it was due to the hurricane Sandy 2 weeks ago. Our fence had fallen down and our neighbors dog tried herding the chickens in the yard. Chasing them all over the yard during the hurricane. We had snow last week and then 65 degree weather over the past 2 days. Life for these poor girls has been crazy. A couple of days ago, one of my Easter Eggers began losing and pulling out her feathers. Any suggestions?

 

[tick22]

Just to make things clear, I use the heat lamps only on the water bowls and only when there is a threat of a freeze. Frozen water and chickens do not match well. other than that, I also have a regular bulb on a timer...

 

[ChickenCrazy8]

Has anybody mentioned molting???? When chickens lose their feathers and grow new ones. They use so much energy that they will stop laying. Hope everything works out!!!

 

[lbrtyldy]

My egg production had substantially dropped too. So, I tried a couple of things.

First, we increased the # of hours our timer puts the light on in the coops. Now, it's from 5 AM - 7AM and 4 PM - 8 PM, giving them 15 hours of light. I think they need 14 to lay.

Secondly, since the weather's gotten so much colder, I was thinking I needed to up their grain ration since they need more calories to stay warm (I think!) and there aren't any bugs for them to catch in the yard when they're free ranging (which they are also doing for less hours a day due to the reduced sunlight).

They have slowly been increasing their production, almost back to acceptable levels.

I like eggs all year round so we run the light to try to keep them laying. Worked like a charm last winter. I can't see feeding all those hungry mouths all year and only getting eggs part of the year!

 

[gigglssmls]

Well I am back to two eggs a day but with my four hens I expect and WAS getting 3 eggs a day. At least it is getting better. I have two lights in the hen house and the way mine is designed they have fun day light until night. One of the lights is heat light the other is a soft regular lite. Depending on which is needed by weather is the one I use It is a a large coop. It has two nests (although they all will only use ONE of them ) and three areas to roost. I use a thicker layer of straw which they love and they have two runs (one small and one medium size) and they free range during the day. The building is a large shed with a full size people door in it and it looks like a mini barn. Feed and water are inside. They DO share the coop with a goose and gander but we separated a small area in the back of the coop for the geese and she has her nest back there. Odd thing is SHE is laying like crazy. My goose has now laid 9 eggs (lays one every other day) which is odd this time of year for and embden goose. She should start sitting soon... in the next few days. They usually start sitting once they have laid 8-11 eggs...... MOST often 10. So looks like I will have goslings this winter. Hopefully I start getting three eggs a day again. Four would be ideal because we eat them..... and come Spring we will start hatching some. Thank you all for your input. I DO appreciate it. If you have any more please feel free to add. God Bless