Hen not laying for nearly a year?

[DuckChick758]

I have an Easter Egger hen, about 1.5 years old…and she does NOT lay eggs. Hasn’t laid an egg for over 9 months. I got her as a chick and she started laying normally at 18ish weeks, but that only lasted like 2 months then she stopped and hasn’t laid an egg since.

Anyone know why? The entire rest of my flock lays normally. I have ducks and brown egg laying chicken breeds, so my Easter Egger is the only one who lays colored chicken eggs…it’s easy to tell she’s not laying. This winter her comb was pale as if she wasn’t laying, but it turned bright red a few months ago…I figured she just took a long break and would start again. But still no eggs. She’s lowest on the pecking order for sure. Kind of a loner. Could it be stress? My rooster died a month ago and she’s been hanging with the flock a lot more since he’s been gone…pecking order might be changing and causing her less stress? Still no eggs this month though

 

[aart]

Do you free range?

 

[DuckChick758]

Do you free range?

Only occasionally. Like 1-3 times a week for a few hours. I figured she could have a hidden nest, but I’ve checked everywhere and I haven’t been able to find anything! It would be a lot of hidden eggs by now!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Sounds like a dud if it's been going on this long.

 

[indoorchicken]

I have an Easter Egger hen, about 1.5 years old…and she does NOT lay eggs. Hasn’t laid an egg for over 9 months. I got her as a chick and she started laying normally at 18ish weeks, but that only lasted like 2 months then she stopped and hasn’t laid an egg since.

Anyone know why? The entire rest of my flock lays normally. I have ducks and brown egg laying chicken breeds, so my Easter Egger is the only one who lays colored chicken eggs…it’s easy to tell she’s not laying. This winter her comb was pale as if she wasn’t laying, but it turned bright red a few months ago…I figured she just took a long break and would start again. But still no eggs. She’s lowest on the pecking order for sure. Kind of a loner. Could it be stress? My rooster died a month ago and she’s been hanging with the flock a lot more since he’s been gone…pecking order might be changing and causing her less stress? Still no eggs this month though

My olive egger laid the first year then stopped. She is 3-year-old now and hasn't laid eggs after that. I think it might their species.

 

[ChicNmom]

What are you feeding them? I never gave a lot of thought to feed. Figuring layer feed was obviously made for laying chickens.

I have an 11yo easter egger that usually pops out a few eggs in Spring and then goes back into retirement I have some new birds that are on high protein feed. My old EE girl has been eating their crumble and has started popping out eggs. The only thing I can think is it's the feed.

But your girl is very young. So maybe a reproductive problem or just bad genes.

 

[member 544621]

try a higher protein feed, if you aren't already.

 

[DuckChick758]

I have a mixed flock with ducks and I had a rooster, so everyone gets Purina flock raiser with oyster shell on the side. It’s 20% protein so higher than most layer formulas.

It’s been weird though, my rooster passed away, and then about 2 weeks later I took on a new hen from a friend…then this Easter Egger started immediately laying. After about a year off, she’s laying again and has been for like 3 weeks. Obviously the pecking order readjusted? She seemed to hate the rooster…always avoiding him, and now I don’t think she’s the lowest anymore, it’s the new hen. So maybe lessened stress caused her to lay again? Maybe these Easter eggers are just fragile haha.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I have a mixed flock with ducks and I had a rooster, so everyone gets Purina flock raiser with oyster shell on the side. It’s 20% protein so higher than most layer formulas.

It’s been weird though, my rooster passed away, and then about 2 weeks later I took on a new hen from a friend…then this Easter Egger started immediately laying. After about a year off, she’s laying again and has been for like 3 weeks. Obviously the pecking order readjusted? She seemed to hate the rooster…always avoiding him, and now I don’t think she’s the lowest anymore, it’s the new hen. So maybe lessened stress caused her to lay again? Maybe these Easter eggers are just fragile haha.

Stress can definitely prevent a hen from laying. They go into survival mode and their body stops any reproduction because it does not feel that it is safe to reproduce. When the stress or stressor goes away the body feels that it’s safe to reproduce again. It actually is a common phenomenon with most species.

 

[DuckChick758]

That’s sad! She did spend lots of time leaving the coop/run to hang out with me or my dogs before. She seemed to like hanging with the humans and dogs more than the chickens…until the rooster died. Now she still visits me several times a day and will follow me around for a while, but she spends considerably more time with the flock now. I never noticed the rooster bothering her much. He had a different favorite hen, but she really tried to avoid him.