We've had our hens for about 6 years and were down to 4. They weren't laying much, which I chalked up to advanced age. This is my first group of chickens, so I really don't know what to expect in terms of when egg laying stops. We're vegetarians, so we've just kept them around as pets and joked about our hen retirement home. Recently, the alpha hen died. All of the sudden, the remaining 3 hens started laying like crazy! I'm wondering if she was stressing them out. She was a bit of a bully. These being my first chickens, I always thought it was normal to have one bossing the others around. Since she died, though, there doesn't seem to be a new alpha hen (at least not one that is showing much bossy behavior towards the others). DH thinks I'm anthropomorphising. What do y'all think?
