HELP!!!!!!!!!!! ALL of my hens have stopped laying eggs!

[Myst4]

Help! All of my hens have suddenly stopped laying eggs. I have 21 chickens(including 2 roosters). A few of my hens are old and don't lay anymore, BUT my Silver Laced Wyandotte hens(6 all together),BLRW and a few other mixed breeds don't lay eggs anymore and seem to have no interest in doing so. My chickens are free range,so I thought maybe that they were laying them outside somewhere. I kept my chickens inside the coop for 5 days..and nothing. I thought maybe they were eating their eggs...
so I stayed in the coop as often as I could to catch them laying and take their egg before they had a chance to eat it....and nothing. They weren't even going in the nests! My SLW and BLRW are all young,approximately 1.5 years old. What could be wrong?! This has never happened before. They are fed scratch,laying pellets and scraps(breads,veggies,left over meats etc.). Anyone have any advice or even know what's happening? We are just feeding them and they aren't earning their keep(we don't eat them though,let them die of old age) They are very healthy and beautiful birds(even the old ones). About 6-7 of them went broody this past summer and about 5 or so molted..but that's been all done for weeks now. I don't know what to do..I need their eggs.Thanks in advance!

 

[Taffyof123]

We are in the same boot.Cant figure it out either.We have 30 hens and 2 roosters and we get 1 Egg a day for the last 6 weeks.
Have a real nice Coop large run area, feed what you feed ond Nothing.Cant figure it out .Average age 2 Years.Does some one know ????? Why ??????

 

[Animol]

This may sound stupid but alot of breeds don't lay through winter depending on the amount of light they get regardless of having cockrels or not. My bantams are still laying but my fussier breeds stopped about three weeks back and they are 1-2 years old with the whole backgarden to run around in. It has alot to do with circadian rythms.

 

[sallihennipenni]

I'm fairly new to this so maybe a more "seasoned" chicken person can comment but I wonder if their molting? We have 12 hens and their egg production has been 0 - 2 eggs.....usually 0 or 1 eggs per day now for almost 3 months. I didn't recognize what was going on for a while....duh! I should have since there were feathers all over the coop. I guess it came on gradually enough that I just took the feathers as normal. The appearance of the birds was not very noticeable at first. Even now, I only see 2 birds who look like they're obviously molting. If molting is what's going on in your case, it seems like your 5 hens that already went through the molt should be giving you eggs though. Hmmmm.....?? You'll find a lot on molting if you do a search on this site. There's a 1 1/2 year molt that you'll learn about. Apparently the birds that go through the molt earlier are not your best layers. If they molt first at 1 1/2 years, that's supposed to be a good thing....better layers.

 

[Myst4]

regarding the no laying during the winter....mine have ALWAYS laid during the winter, in fact I get more eggs during the cold months then the warm. During the summer,they molt and go broody. I have gotten up to 20 eggs per day in the winter.

 

[Smoochie]

Hens lay until either the number of light hours per day or the degree of light intensity signals the end of a reproductive cycle. Most hens therefore stop laying during the shorter winter days. Using artificial lighting tricks them into thinking the season remains right for reproduction. If your hens are already in a moult you may not get eggs until spring.

If you have a coop smaller than 200 square feet of living space you need one 60 watt incandescent bulb, 7 feet above the floor, above feeders and away from nesting boxes providing a constant "light" for 15 hours a day (but 6-8 hours of darkness for rest). If you have windows you can set a timer for those dark morning and dark night times only.

 

[FatauChickens]

Hi , we have 15 chickens and just lost one 2 days ago. Not sure from what but then no eggs? We had eggs and then lost one hen and all of a sudden no more eggs? This is strange?

 

[SHillChickMan]

I have experienced the same problem and was wondering if the addition of a loud-mouthed bunch of guineas could be stressing out my girls........

 

[Smoochie]

Hi , we have 15 chickens and just lost one 2 days ago. Not sure from what but then no eggs? We had eggs and then lost one hen and all of a sudden no more eggs? This is strange?

This is common. Chickens get stressed out when a "friend" leaves and then they stop laying. Usually they pick it up again in a few days to a few weeks.

 

[Smoochie]

I have experienced the same problem and was wondering if the addition of a loud-mouthed bunch of guineas could be stressing out my girls........

Adding new "friends" can also be stressful and cause your hens to stop laying.