HELP! My 9 hens have stopped laying! Need advice.

[Eva2020]

Add a light to your coop as daylight hours are shorter they need allot of light to lay

Personally would not recommend this if you care about your chickens and want them to have healthy lives. They only have a certain number of yolks in their ovaries, and if you push them through the winter they will lay for much less time in their lives. They work super hard to make eggs, so I like to let them have their vacation.

 

[Nigel27]

I would but it doesn’t get too cold in Florida and I don’t want to risk a fire.

It is nice to give them a break but it sounds like they’ve had their vacation and need to get back to work. I have an led kitchen light in my coop, they’re 5 bucks and no fire hazard. Mine are laying, in BC Canada, in the snow and it gets dark at 5. I turn their light off around 9

 

[WindingRoad]

So it all started in the late fall right before the week of thanksgiving they slowly stopped laying. My whole flock started molting and they all have their feathers back right now but none of them are laying. The hens I have are Buff Orpington, golden laced Wyandotte, two white leghorns, Easter egger, sapphire gem, sapphire olive egger, and two crevecoeur hens. I have given them scratch grains, dried herbs, protein cat food, and lettuce from the garden but they still seem to not be laying. I let them out of the pen to free range in the afternoon but I just don’t understand why they are not laying. Down in Florida it doesn’t get as cold in the winter months as up north and I know people who live where it’s snowing and they are stilling getting eggs??? Any advice?

I have 5 WLH I was not without eggs this fall except maybe a couple of days. I've been getting consistently 3 White eggs per day. One of my LH is about 50% featherless. She looks awful. I'm pretty sure she's not laying. I have 8 brown egg layers. 2BO's 2 SLW's 2 BR's and 2RIR. ! SLW is laying. She just started up about a week ago. All my brown eggs layers are fully feathered from their molt. MY 2 BO's are 3years old. WLH are 1.5 old. The others are between 1-2 years old.

 

[Camilladavisss]

They might lay more consistently on a layer feed, but in any case, I believe it’s natural for them to take a break following a moult. And that’s really the way it ought to be so no cause for concern. Maybe a little inconvenient if you’re counting on the eggs. And, it sounds like a lovely flock!

Ok thank you

 

[rosemarythyme]

Ok thanks is it normal for all,of them to take a break?

Completely normal. I have far shorter daylight hours in winter so none of my hens ever lay until days start lengthening again. I only get eggs in winter if I have pullets coming into lay.

 

[Maverick1]

Put a light in the hen house for about 4 hours. I recommend a timer for the light to go on 4 hours before sunrise in the winter time. If you add it at night they will not find their roosts.It mimics the summer hours of sunlight. Your chickens need around 14 hours of sunlight for normal laying. In a couple weeks they will start laying and they will lay all winter!

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Personally would not recommend this if you care about your chickens and want them to have healthy lives. They only have a certain number of yolks in their ovaries, and if you push them through the winter they will lay for much less time in their lives. They work super hard to make eggs, so I like to let them have their vacation.

Actually that's a myth about the yolks and some people have them as live stock not pets...but me personally I don't add lights never have and they still lay some take a break then others pick up laying so it works.