Ex-broodies not laying

[lauralee80]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to this chicken business and it's harder than I thought!

We had 2 hybrids, 6 bantam wynadottes (inc 1 cockerel) and 2 bantam silkies.

We went away a few weeks ago, leaving our neighbour to let the chickens out and feed etc. he was great, but the chickens had laid some eggs that he'd failed to find and several of them had gone broody sitting on nests.

I used a broody breaker to try and cure them which seemed to work. We also bought a new coop and changed it last week. None of the hens have been behaving like broodies for about 10 days now, but we haven't had a single egg from any of the wynadottes (even the two that we're never broody in the first place) or from the silkie that went broody in at least 2 weeks.

We let them free range in the garden in the afternoons.

Is this normal? Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can get them all laying again?

 

[lauralee80]

*we have, not had!

 

[iwiw60]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to this chicken business and it's harder than I thought!

We had 2 hybrids, 6 bantam wynadottes (inc 1 cockerel) and 2 bantam silkies.

We went away a few weeks ago, leaving our neighbour to let the chickens out and feed etc. he was great, but the chickens had laid some eggs that he'd failed to find and several of them had gone broody sitting on nests.

I used a broody breaker to try and cure them which seemed to work. We also bought a new coop and changed it last week. None of the hens have been behaving like broodies for about 10 days now, but we haven't had a single egg from any of the wynadottes (even the two that we're never broody in the first place) or from the silkie that went broody in at least 2 weeks.

We let them free range in the garden in the afternoons.

Is this normal? Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can get them all laying again?

Well, from the sounds of it your chickens have gone through various degrees of stress as of late.
1) Stranger feeding and taking care.
2) Breaking broodies.
3) Getting a new coop.
All these put stress on chickens. Give them time to get comfortable with their new digs..things should get back to normal.

 

[lauralee80]

Thank you, we'll leave them to settle and see how it goes!

 

[DRK2006]

I was going to add that if they're free-ranging, look for hidden nests. If they ARE laying, which is possible, they might be confused with the new coop and stress and so might have a hidden nest or two out there!

 

[lauralee80]

Yay! On Wednesday we got an egg from one of the silver laced, then Thursday we got one from the silver laced and the white silkie, then yesterday we got eggs from 2 silver laced! Glad they're settling down.

Thanks for the advice