Help!

[tony guinn]

i had a flock of 11 hens and a rooster. I was given seven adult bantam hens by someone. I introduced them into my existing flock. Within a week, all of my original hens quit laying. This was two months ago. The new bantams are laying fine and only 2 of my original girls are laying again. I built a new larger coop to eliminate over crowding but this didn’t fix the problem! Need advise on what to do. Don’t like feeding them and getting nothing back!!

 

[ChickNanny13]

Chickens are not great adapters to change ... Your flock has had alot of change; new members and not a new coop. Depending on your location, it's also the shortened days & weather changes. Hopefully you quarantined the bantams before adding to your flock, prevention of possible introducing illness to your flock.

You may want to update your profile with your location, helps repliers know your time zone, weather conditions & predator possibilities.

 

[tony guinn]

Chickens are not great adapters to change ... Your flock has had alot of change; new members and not a new coop. Depending on your location, it's also the shortened days & weather changes. Hopefully you quarantined the bantams before adding to your flock, prevention of possible introducing illness to your flock.

You may want to update your profile with your location, helps repliers know your time zone, weather conditions & predator possibilities.

Do you think they will come out of it or am I gonna need to get rid of them

 

[tony guinn]

Do you think they will come out of it or am I gonna need to get rid of them

I understand the winter issue and even put a light in the coop on a timer but that didn’t work either

 

[aart]

I understand the winter issue and even put a light in the coop on a timer but that didn’t work either

Patience....they aren't machines...or as @Blooie sez, Pez Dispensers.
With chickens there will always be times when you feed and get nothing in return(or at least not eggs).

How old, in months, are the birds that are not laying?
Did they molt this fall?
What are the details of your lighting....timer, duration, when started???
When did they all move into the new bigger coop?

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

Not sure, could just be that time of the year where egg laying decreased and a coincidence that the new chickens came along? Although I do think a change in the environment and atmosphere can affect in how the produce eggs...... like take for example, how mother lions will not come into heat when they have cubs but once those babies are killed off by another lion stranger, within a day she's starts to change biologically and come into heat. I know, probably a bad analogy but, biological changes could be the culprit.

 

[ChickNanny13]

Do you think they will come out of it or am I gonna need to get rid of them

I'm sure they'll come out of it ... 2x aart = patience

 

[tony guinn]

Patience....they aren't machines...or as @Blooie sez, Pez Dispensers.
With chickens there will always be times when you feed and get nothing in return(or at least not eggs).

How old, in months, are the birds that are not laying?
Did they molt this fall?
What are the details of your lighting....timer, duration, when started???
When did they all move into the new bigger coop?

On the age they are from 30 months to 11 months. Some of them did molt and some didn’t. I have a led bulb on a timer that comes on about 3:30 am. So they are getting about 15 hours of light. They have been in the new coop now for about a month now, but they quit laying before

 

[aart]

On the age they are from 30 months to 11 months. Some of them did molt and some didn’t. I have a led bulb on a timer that comes on about 3:30 am. So they are getting about 15 hours of light. They have been in the new coop now for about a month now, but they quit laying before

When did you add the lights? It can take time for that to work.
You're just gonna have to wait...even with lights, I use them too-since Nov, my hens just started coming back into lay in the last week. The pullets even took time off in Dec and are also just ramping back up.

How big is your coop, in feet by feet?
Dimensions and pics would help here.

What all and how exactly are you feeding?
Diet can play a role also.

It's frustrating but there are a lot of variables to consider,
and it's hard to get them all in line.