Chicken stopped laying eggs

[emilyl]

One of my chickens stopped laying eggs. She was born in January and was laying just fine until mid-August. Our chickens free range in our backyard. Our girl had a way of escaping our yard and one night, while i was out of town, she didn't make it back to her roost by nightfall. My husband found her at our back door at 5 a.m. the next morning. We have "sealed" up the yard and she hasn't been able to get out since then. However, she also hasn't laid an egg since then either. Is this simply PTSD or could it be something else. She's acting normally otherwise - she doesn't look to be molting and she's not broody. I have found her in the nesting box a few times, but no eggs. Today, we didn't get any eggs from our 3 chickens, but we had a massive thunderstorm as well.

 

[Wyandottes7]

The daylight hours have started decreasing throughout the United States. Hens lay best with 14 hours or more of daylight; once it drops past that, they will slow down in production or even stop altogether. I think that this is a possible reason for you hen to cease laying.

Is there any place she (or you other hens) could be hiding their eggs? This would make it appear that they weren't laying.

Hope this helps!

 

[emilyl]

We do have a good sized backyard, but I have searched the yard many times over the last month looking for her eggs. I haven't found any, and at this point, there would be close to 30, which I think would be hard to miss. I hope it is just a daylight issue, but it seems odd, since it started happening in August.