Can a dirty coop make a chicken stop laying?

[KNelly]

My best friend and I got chickens at the same time. Almost all the same breeds and ages are all the same give or take a week. She has 3 hens laying and I only have 2 both of us have a same size flock, about the same size coop/run and we both feed ours the same food. Can you tell we are best friends??? Lol her chickens started laying a week before mine started which was about a month and week ago. She was getting an egg every day for a week for 4 weeks from all of them with a day break every 7 days exactly. Now they have have stopped completely for a week. She hasn't had any thing change and no stress factors so I mentioned to her I thought it was because her coop is super dirty. She hasn't cleaned it in over 2 months and it's layered and hard as a rock stuck on the bottom floor. Looks like it's inches thick. Could that be why they all stopped at the same time? Like I said mine are new layers like hers and I've had no problems. We got our chickens from the same places too. Hers aren't showing any signs of sickness. Could a dirty coop make them stop laying or is it something else? Or are they just taking a standard break? That's the only thing different she's doing. I don't know what to tell her because I'm still new at this whole chicken thing. :/

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

The answer to your question is maybe. Poor housekeeping can cause health issues and health issues can impact production. Even with no outward symptoms of illness, birds can be in less than healthy condition physically and when the body is stressed the reproductive system is one of the first systems to be effected. That being said, other things can also be going on that would also have an impact on production.

 

[KNelly]

If not a dirty coop what else could it be? She did add another chicken to her flock 5 days before they stopped. Could that be it? In fact we both did but mine aren't having any issues.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Absolutely. Chickens are individuals, but one thing I've noticed is that they all seem to hate change to some degree.

It could be the new addition, the dirty housing, mice running amuck in the coop, some new strange sound, shorter daylight hours, something in a new location (feeder, drinker, ect), change in feed, or maybe they haven't quite and they're just hiding them, especially if you free range....see what I'm saying? Soooo many factors to consider!


Good luck figuring it out! If the coop is dirty, that would be a good place to start. Time to start scraping and shoveling some poop!

 

[KNelly]

I think my chickens are sick so hers probably are too.