Do hens stop laying eggs when roosters are around?

[kbroom]

As soon as Cindy showed herself to be a CAESAR, it seemed that my hens stopped laying eggs!
I want to know from anyone who may shed some chicken feed on this subject, what's up with my girls???

Pictured below is my proud Caesar, making his stand for my girly flock! The girls now sleep in the inner coop, while Caesar stands guard on top of the coop inside the larger pen.

 

[Ecarroll]

No, hens should not stop laying eggs when there is a rooster.

 

[nuthatched]

No.
Are they molting?
Any disturbances? Predators? New things?
Diet?

 

[Ecarroll]

Also are they free range, if so they could be laying somewhere else.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Caesar looks pretty young to me, and I'm guessing by how you worded your post that he's under a year old, a cockerel rather than a full-fledged rooster. How is his behavior toward the girls? Does he do a lot of chasing and feather pulling? Hear a lot of squawking from the chicken yard when you're around them?

It's possible, since he seems to have fairly recently come into his manhood, that he's just gotten a rush of hormones and is behaving too aggressively toward the girls as he's figuring out how to 'rooster' in his young age. A mature, well-mannered rooster should not cause your hens to stop laying. However, the stress from an overly-aggressive or overzealous cockerel in the flock can and often does cause hens to stop laying for a period of time.

 

[kbroom]

No.
Are they molting?
Any disturbances? Predators? New things?
Diet?

The heat here is terrible. I do my best to keep them cool, other than inviting them into the house, that is! Don't know it they're molting. The older ones are a little over a year old, and one is recently laying eggs. Two EEs are about to lay eggs in September. Ruby, my silver laced Wyandotte has just started laying this month in August.

 

[kbroom]

Caesar looks pretty young to me, and I'm guessing by how you worded your post that he's under a year old, a cockerel rather than a full-fledged rooster. How is his behavior toward the girls? Does he do a lot of chasing and feather pulling? Hear a lot of squawking from the chicken yard when you're around them?

It's possible, since he seems to have fairly recently come into his manhood, that he's just gotten a rush of hormones and is behaving too aggressively toward the girls as he's figuring out how to 'rooster' in his young age. A mature, well-mannered rooster should not cause your hens to stop laying. However, the stress from an overly-aggressive or overzealous cockerel in the flock can and often does cause hens to stop laying for a period of time.

That makes a lot of sense, from what I've seen. He's like a teenager at an all girl high school! Yep. That just might be what's going on, and he is doing a lot of chasing. That's why I've placed him on top of the coop at night as the girls' guard chicken, to let him feel his newly earned "status." This morning was his first "cockerel doodle do" scream that I've heard. When we first started getting chickens, my husband insisted that we could NOT have a rooster. He knows that we are NOT going to have Caesar for dinner, and I wouldn't think of harming one feather on his beautiful head. So, the only position open for him was that of guard chicken. Cross your fingers that I don't get anymore cockerels! Caesar and his young flock will be 20 weeks old in September. The rest of my flock is now a year and a half now.