Hen still not laying weeks after fox attack

[NJisBearCountry]

About 5.5 weeks ago, my flock was free ranging when they sadly witnessed a fox eviscerate their friend Gretchen in broad daylight while they yelled for help. I managed to get there to interrupt things soon enough to keep the rest of them safe and get them locked back up but they were all shaken up and distressed, especially my little frizzled Polish bantam who continued to shriek about it as if she needed to tell me everything that had just happened. Two days later she actually led a funeral procession back to the scene of the murder (at this point just a pile of feathers) and led the girls in singing funeral hymns while I found myself at an impromptu chicken funeral and, unsure what else to do, stood there validating their feelings and saying nice things about their friend.

The morning after the attack, this hen laid a little fairy egg but she hasn't laid again since.

The other 4 hens are all laying daily or near-daily. One other girl was a hold out and laying inconsistently until about a week and a half ago but she's back to laying regularly.

I did make the mistake of buying them a bag of pellets instead of crumbles several weeks ago but have since bought and mixed in more crumbles and confirmed she's eating well. This hen has beautifully floofy bouncy head feathers that get picked so she always has a bald head so I gave her a haircut so her friends are less tempted to eat her hair. They are sprayed for mites and she appears to otherwise be in excellent health. She's my friendliest, sweetest little girl who follows me around and cheers the loudest when I show up to hang out with them or let them out to free range or bring them tasty treats so I think she's especially emotionally sensitive.

I found the ingress where the fox got into the electric poultry netting and fixed and fortified the area where they're allowed out to free range. I've made further protective improvements to their coop and run and the fenced area where they're allowed out for periods of the day in nice weather and have even further plans for more defenses. Since the attack, we've had no other daytime visits and only a couple of unsuccessful night time visits from fox and raccoons per my security cameras. The girls have been quiet during these visits so they may sleep through them and visits like this took place before Gretchen's untimely passing. When I've seen evidence of a visit on camera from the night before, I find how the predator breached the electric netting and fix it and we go weeks without further visits so this isn't a persistent stressor.

Anyway, lots of detail to say: I've tried to troubleshoot this and give my girls a safe and relaxing place to live and lay eggs but this hen hasn't laid an egg in going on 6 weeks now. She's only a year old. Is there anything else I can do to help her? Or do I just need to wait it out with her and include one less egg in my collection calculations for a while?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Polish are a very flighty breed. It will take time. Once they stop laying from stress it can take awhile to resume. Generally 4-6 weeks.

Some hens take the hottest months off from laying so perhaps she was already shutting down for a while when the attack happened. Generally I see fairy eggs when hens are resuming or about to take a break from laying. Those that stop will often resume when it starts to cool down again.

 

[User635240]

Where are you located?
I just posted about this. My neighbors are also complaining about their hens not laying.
I suspect environmental poisoning, specifically dioxin.
I am going to try these things: bringing the flock indoors with a HEPA air filter; adding charcoal pellets to their feed and turmeric powder to their water to detox.

 

[User635240]

Hi, I reread this thread and realized my previous response was off.
Something similar happened to one of my hens. A baby fox tried to eat her and got her tail feathers before I intervened. The hen was visibly stressed for a couple of days so I caged her to observe. I tried engaging her in a 'fun' activity - scattering some scratch grains for the other hens, and holding her next to them while they excitedly scratched and pecked. She showed interest so I let her join them. Her mood improved after that. I was thinking for your flock either scratch grains in a few inches of hay (to make it challenging) or a special dust bath.

About 5.5 weeks ago, my flock was free ranging when they sadly witnessed a fox eviscerate their friend Gretchen in broad daylight while they yelled for help. I managed to get there to interrupt things soon enough to keep the rest of them safe and get them locked back up but they were all shaken up and distressed, especially my little frizzled Polish bantam who continued to shriek about it as if she needed to tell me everything that had just happened. Two days later she actually led a funeral procession back to the scene of the murder (at this point just a pile of feathers) and led the girls in singing funeral hymns while I found myself at an impromptu chicken funeral and, unsure what else to do, stood there validating their feelings and saying nice things about their friend.

The morning after the attack, this hen laid a little fairy egg but she hasn't laid again since.

The other 4 hens are all laying daily or near-daily. One other girl was a hold out and laying inconsistently until about a week and a half ago but she's back to laying regularly.

I did make the mistake of buying them a bag of pellets instead of crumbles several weeks ago but have since bought and mixed in more crumbles and confirmed she's eating well. This hen has beautifully floofy bouncy head feathers that get picked so she always has a bald head so I gave her a haircut so her friends are less tempted to eat her hair. They are sprayed for mites and she appears to otherwise be in excellent health. She's my friendliest, sweetest little girl who follows me around and cheers the loudest when I show up to hang out with them or let them out to free range or bring them tasty treats so I think she's especially emotionally sensitive.

I found the ingress where the fox got into the electric poultry netting and fixed and fortified the area where they're allowed out to free range. I've made further protective improvements to their coop and run and the fenced area where they're allowed out for periods of the day in nice weather and have even further plans for more defenses. Since the attack, we've had no other daytime visits and only a couple of unsuccessful night time visits from fox and raccoons per my security cameras. The girls have been quiet during these visits so they may sleep through them and visits like this took place before Gretchen's untimely passing. When I've seen evidence of a visit on camera from the night before, I find how the predator breached the electric netting and fix it and we go weeks without further visits so this isn't a persistent stressor.

Anyway, lots of detail to say: I've tried to troubleshoot this and give my girls a safe and relaxing place to live and lay eggs but this hen hasn't laid an egg in going on 6 weeks now. She's only a year old. Is there anything else I can do to help her? Or do I just need to wait it out with her and include one less egg in my collection calculations for a while?