Chickens no longer laying

[chamin]

I have flock of 6 chickens, a RIR and a Buff that are almost 2 years old and a blue Americauna, Russian Orloff, Blue Cochin and a Welsummer who are almost 1 year old. Around Thanksgiving we figured out that we had fowl pox in our flock and all but the RIR and Russian seemed to have gotten it to some degree (visible sores, not the wet pox). The Buff, RIR, Welsummer and Blue Cochin all molted at various times as well (that's done now).

Our Americauna has yet to lay an egg ever. Before the pox happened our Cochin got really broody and stopped laying after she'd only been laying for about 1 month. Then our Buff and Welsummer stopped laying as well. The Russian and RIR have consistently laid throughout the mild Phoenix winter though. Now I haven't seen an egg from the Russian in about five or six days so we only have one chicken laying.

Is it normal that they stopped laying with the pox? Shouldn't they now be returning to laying? What can I do to get them laying again? They eat a diet of organic layer feed, some oyster shell, some mealworms and scratch for treats and occasional fruit scraps. They free range all day, for several hours in the yard and then the rest of the day in their run. We have two good nesting boxes and a large enough Coop and run for all of them.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[junebuggena]

Illness, molting, and the shorter days of winter are all factors contributing to the lack of eggs from your flock. Layer feed is for actively laying birds only, and is intended to be the only thing offered. There is no magic ingredient in layer feed. It's just normal feed but with barely enough protein and a whole lot of calcium. With all the treats you give to your flock, I suggest a starter/grower feed or flock raiser to help offset the lower protein goodies. It will also help get them back into condition for laying.

 

[MeMaAndSamantha]

Our girls took a long time recovering from molting .. then Winter arrived .. No eggs at all. Then I remembered something from my childhood. My dad would hang a light bulb in the HenHouse. So, I decided to see if this trick would work. AND Just a plain light bulb has worked wonders in just a week ! The Girls are back to laying like the happy hens they are. We have 6 hens and we're now getting 4 eggs per day ! Zip to 4 is quite a difference in my mind.