jeepgrrl
Songster
Hi Poultry4Health! I'm relatively new to the forum but I will take a stab at your hens' laying issue. I'll apologize in advance for any redundancy in my post. Are your girls molting now? It may not be a full on feather loss but you would see the pin feathers poking through that would indicate molt. I would think that 15C (~60F) is too warm at night to cause laying issues. Do you have all the same breed of hens or are they mixed flock? I have seen one of my girls, who only laid a few eggs last autumn before the days were noticeably getting shorter, poking around the nest when the other girls are using it, and she actually has gotten into the nest and sat on the other hens' eggs, lol! Are you sure they aren't laying their eggs elsewhere if you free range your hens? Try taking a look around, you may find a clutch of eggs hidden in some bushes or some other random place. You also mentioned your hens are over a year old; did you raise them from chicks or did you get laying pullets/hens from someone? If the latter, its possible that they are older than you were led to believe they are and may be done laying eggs on a regular basis. You also mentioned that its winter in Pakistan, which also means shorter day length; this can trigger many breeds to cease laying for the winter but will resume when the days are getting longer. Any new info you can provide?
