Flock of Welsh Harlequins stopped laying 4 months and counting

[jakea86]

Hey everyone,
We have a flock of two year old Welsh Harlequins who have been great layers up until about 4 months ago. They did molt, but they never started laying after that. Like I said it's been 4 months now! They seem happy, have plenty of layer crumble and water. Any ideas why they stopped?

- Jake

 

[chickens really]

It is winter....During the molt did you up the protein to a grower crumble?.....I can buy Duck feed so it takes all the guess work out for me.........Hmmmmm?.......@Miss Lydia or @Amiga are great with information.......

@Miss Lydia
@Amiga



Cheers!

 

[GoldenFlight]

Do you think they could have gotten really stressed at some point?

 

[Amiga]

I can offer a few thoughts - each year, my Runners' laying season is a little shorter, rest times a little longer.

At seven years old now, they are pretty much seasonal layers - lots of eggs in late spring and summer, tapering off in early fall, with the occasional egg here and there through winter. Got one today, in fact. And yesterday.

The younger Khaki Campbell mix girl and White Mallard girl have been laying steadily most of the winter. They are under 2 years old.

The BEI girl laid in summer (she was about 2 years old last summer), took a couple months off, laid for a few months late fall into early winter, and then molted and is resting.

Stress can stop them from laying, environmental substances (iamcuriositycat had a leaching hose that kept her flock from laying), unidentified health issues like parasites . . .

Then there are times when they are laying but someone or something takes the eggs.

 

[jakea86]

Thanks for the replies everyone... we're going to try some higher protein feed and see if that helps.

 

[chickens really]

Thanks for the replies everyone... we're going to try some higher protein feed and see if that helps.

This is what I feed, might help you out?

Duck Finisher, Old style scrath grains, less corn in it and Oat and Barley Crumble....Daily veggies and dry cat food once a week as a treat.....Also Koi fish food is a great source of protein other than the cat food.....


Cheers!