Chicken Randomly Stopped Laying

[gibblesham]

Hey everyone, I have a 2 year old hen who out of nowhere just stopped laying. She was a pretty regular layer, laying once every day or every other day, but recently she just stopped. She hasn’t laid since and it’s been a week. The weird thing is, however, that she has no signs of being sick or acting differently. Does anybody know what could’ve happened to her?

I don’t think it’s egg binding because she certainly would’ve died by now, and she has no symptoms of egg binding. I also don’t think she’s molting because it’s July, and she hasn’t started losing any feathers. It’s also definitely not nutrition because our birds have great layer feed, have access to outdoor grit and bugs, and we give them eggshells to eat. Could she just have reached the end of her laying cycle from age pretty early? Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[coach723]

She very well may be getting ready to molt. I've had birds molt as early as April. Some molt in the coldest days of winter. Some birds do it like clockwork at the same time every year, some are more variable. If she's been acting normally (other than the stopping laying) then I would just keep an eye on her, make sure she's eating and drinking normally. Some birds molt so gradually that you can almost miss it if you don't look close, others will just explode feathers and have big bald spots with pin feathers coming in, and everything in between. All are normal. If you look amongst her feathers you may find some pin feathers. Usually easiest to see around the head/neck and under wings or on the back. They can be testy and not want to be handled, the new feathers can be uncomfortable til they are in.
If it's not molt, then any kind of stress can also impact laying, hot weather, predators hanging around, things changing in the environment.

 

[gibblesham]

She very well may be getting ready to molt. I've had birds molt as early as April. Some molt in the coldest days of winter. Some birds do it like clockwork at the same time every year, some are more variable. If she's been acting normally (other than the stopping laying) then I would just keep an eye on her, make sure she's eating and drinking normally. Some birds molt so gradually that you can almost miss it if you don't look close, others will just explode feathers and have big bald spots with pin feathers coming in, and everything in between. All are normal. If you look amongst her feathers you may find some pin feathers. Usually easiest to see around the head/neck and under wings or on the back. They can be testy and not want to be handled, the new feathers can be uncomfortable til they are in.
If it's not molt, then any kind of stress can also impact laying, hot weather, predators hanging around, things changing in the environment.

Thanks, I’ll continue to keep an eye on her.

 

[gibblesham]

Update: After 26 days of not laying, she finally laid an egg again this morning.