HI, i am pretty new at looking after chickens and bought my first two chickens. one is a Leghorn and the other is a brown warren hen. they had been brought up together and would panic if separated and i was told they were laying well. however the leghorn was losing its feathers and the brown one laid a few eggs. . anyway, i bought four more brown warren hens and was told they were laying. when i put the new hens in with the first two they started fighting and some ended up bleeding. so i separated them with wire net so they could still get the pecking order thing done. the four i bought laid an egg the day after i got them and then all hens stopped laying. so. as i had sixhens not laying, i sold the first two. the other four were ok with each other and a lot quieter. anyway, the day after the two hens went i got two eggs. one was larger than normal. i dont get it...is it possible the hens were not laying because they were scared of the others? it puzzles me and wanted to know more. also as soon as i let them out this morning one of them just froze and laid her egg on the floor, where it cracked. luckily i removed it in time as the others were going mad for it. how come she has done this? normally they give egs in the coop where the nest is. any advice much appreciated.
when adding new chickens to a flock,or moving birds, this can stress the birds and stop the laying process. So when you get new birds that are laying age give them a few weeks to get use to their new area. same thing with switching pens. Also we are comming up on molting season and that will stop or slow up the eggs. every now and than chickens act like they forget where to lay the egg good luck
