Egglaying...I must be stupid...

[Lvstang]

Hello, all. This is my first post to this forum.

I have 3 hens: 1 Plymouth, 1 Rhode Island Red, and 1 White Leghorn. They are all approximately 3 years old. My Leghorn started laying around the first week of February with the other two following a few weeks later.

My Plymouth and RR are both still laying nearly every day. My Leghorn, however, has stopped laying. It's been almost a month now. She seems to be okay, although she is starting to have an issue with poop covering her back side. This has never happened to her before.

I cleaned her up and had to cut away some feathers that I was unable to get clean and checked to see if she was egg bound. I did not feel anything and she does not appear to be swollen.

I checked the coop for hidden eggs. Nothing. They do roam around on the weekends, but I have not found any eggs left anywhere.

She is doing one strange thing. When I let them out of the coop, instead of running off with the others she seems to just stand for a bit and appears to squat. She'll do that for a few minutes and then run off.

I took her to the vet, but the vet could not find anything wrong. Gave me some antibiotics to give her as a precaution. Still nothing.

I feed them Organic Poultry Layer Feed (Soy Free) and Organic Scratch Feed from Countryside Natural Products and I also given them some extra alfalpha and spinach.

She does not appear to be moulting - yet anyway.

I am at a loss as to what to do next.

Felicia

 

[Rafter 7 Paint Horses]

At that age I wouldn't think they should be molting, but nature does strange things.

I get from your posts that they are off to a real slow start this spring to lay.
I don't know where you are at, and weather has a large impact on layers. If you have had temps changing drastically from day to night, that could be their problem.

As to the crushed red pepper, some say it works, but when I tried it, I was getting 2 to 3 dozen eggs a day and after they ate the pepper, they quit laying! I mean 0 eggs!! It took them 3 to 4 weeks to get back to the 2 to 3 dozen a day again. Then about 3 weeks after that, the weather straightened out and I had my 14 dozen eggs a day again.

With my hens, any time I change anything, it takes about 3 weeks for them to adjust. Since you just started having lights on again, it may take them a couple of weeks to get their system geared for egg-laying again.

It sounds like you have given them everything they need, so you may just have to wait for them to get ready.

I will give you another old wives tale that did work for me.
After you burn some wood, like brush, fallen tree limbs, etc. Take the cold ashes and put in where they dust bathe. I don't know what it does, but it worked for me in a breeding pen that the hens were not laying.


Jean

 

[rooster-red]

How old are these chickens?
Could they be old enough to be at the end of the cycle, as in too old to lay?

 

[stilwellchick]

My hens all laid eggs overtime this winter and have slowed down to about 2 eggs/day from 6 hens. One is for sure moulting but not even one dropped feather from any of the other girls. Others have written in the same thing this past month. Could be they are getting ready to moult, mine stopped laying before the moult started. Some have said they will lay heavily for 6 months then take a break. You can check my post titled "hens holiday" and read what others wrote in as well. Let us know if they get back to work!