chickens wont lay eggs ever since i moved them to a new coop

[henexpertwannabe]

hello we are new to backyard chickens....recently got 2 young austrolorp hens (6 months old). when i first got them a few weeks ago, i had them in a makeshift coop and used a cardboard box with a hole in it for roosting and they were laying eggs here and there. i just got a new coop for them a week and a half ago and this one is a professional kind/safer although it is a little smaller, but it has a nesting box with it. anyways they stopped laying eggs altogether ever since i moved them to the new coop but they do sleep in it. we let them roam around the backyard during the day. another difference is that this new coop is on concrete with bedding inside for them to rest/walk on, while the old one was in the dirt. i looked for eggs around my backyard that maybe they were hiding but didn't see any. what am I doing wrong? how do i get them to lay eggs again?

I also set up a separate roosting box outside the coop but they don't go in it.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

They may have stopped laying for a while because of the stress, or are hiding eggs in the yard.
Unrelated question- do they have proper roosting bars?

 

[henexpertwannabe]

They may have stopped laying for a while because of the stress, or are hiding eggs in the yard.
Unrelated question- do they have proper roosting bars?

okay...thank you. there are roosting bars in the coop that are maybe an inch off the ground but they don't use those, they just sit/sleep in the nesting box.

 

[Tonyroo]

For that age, they should be roosting 4 to 6 feet off the ground and not in the nesting box.

I find hens that sleep in nesting box won't lay eggs there.

 

[rosemarythyme]

okay...thank you. there are roosting bars in the coop that are maybe an inch off the ground but they don't use those, they just sit/sleep in the nesting box.

Sounds like you have a prefab? The roosts are often very awfully placed. You can try to improve them by raising them a bit, like so: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ng-in-nest-boxes.1134399/page-2#post-17749535

Chickens want to sit up higher when they roost, and this will also help encourage them to not sit in the nests at night.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

okay...thank you. there are roosting bars in the coop that are maybe an inch off the ground but they don't use those, they just sit/sleep in the nesting box.

Those bars need to be much higher up. 3-4 feet.

 

[aart]

Roosts don't need to be feet off the ground,
but they do need to be at least 2" wide.
@henexpertwannabe please post pics of your coop, inside and out.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Roosts don't need to be feet off the ground,
but they do need to be at least 2" wide.
@henexpertwannabe please post pics of your coop, inside and out.

My birds won’t roost on anything that’s less than 10 inches off the actual ground.

 

[aart]

My birds won’t roost on anything that’s less than 10 inches off the actual ground.

So 12"(1') would work?
They sleep on the floor instead?

They will roost on the highest thing available.
We can have some control over where they roost by how we set up the coop.

 

[LizzzyJo]

Agreed that they have only temporarily stopped and that the roosting bars should be high enough where they feel that they have to jump (they feel safer when not on the jungle floor with the predators). Mine are only about 1.5 and 2 feet off of the coop floor (I have a raised coop). And they are happy clams.