Can new chickens cause our older chicks to stop laying eggs?

[cjpines]

We have 4 chickens age 10 months. They recently stopped laying. Could it be because we have introduced new chicks age 3 months to the run? Or are they molting? They are not losing any feathers.

Is it stress?

 

[Peeps61]

It could be any number of reasons - I have three hens that are 1 1/2 years old, and 7 pullets that are at the point of lay. They were not combined until recently, but 2 of the 3 hens have stopped laying. One is obviously molting. The other still looks nice and fluffy, but no eggs. My RIR hen is still laying faithfully - 4 to 6 eggs per week. Barring other complications, it may simply be the shorter days that are affecting the egg laying cycle. They are a bit young to be molting, but it is possible! I doubt that it's the introduction of your chicks, other than the normal stress of integrating with new birds.

 

[cjpines]

It could be any number of reasons - I have three hens that are 1 1/2 years old, and 7 pullets that are at the point of lay. They were not combined until recently, but 2 of the 3 hens have stopped laying. One is obviously molting. The other still looks nice and fluffy, but no eggs. My RIR hen is still laying faithfully - 4 to 6 eggs per week. Barring other complications, it may simply be the shorter days that are affecting the egg laying cycle. They are a bit young to be molting, but it is possible! I doubt that it's the introduction of your chicks, other than the normal stress of integrating with new birds.

Thank you. We'll see how it goes. No sign of molting, but maybe there is no sign at such an early age, but just hormones?