hen stopped laying

[mcrich]

One of our girls has stopped laying her usual 1 a day. We are new to this, do they take a break once in a while, is she plugged up or something else

 

[mikecnorthwest]

It could be a lot of things. Not sure how old she is but she could be past her peak. She could be molting... is she losing feathers? Any change in diet such as feeding her table scraps instead of layer feed? Anything causing her stress? And yes she could be plugged up with an impacted egg so you will probably want to check if in fact she suddenly stopped laying completely.

 

[aoxa]

I have chickens that just take breaks. Nothing to do with their health, food, environment or anything like that (from what I can see!) My silkie stopped laying for 24 days for no reason. My barred rock girl Dixie will lay for a month straight and take 2 weeks off. If it were a chicken that never breaks for a very long amount of time, I would be worried though.. My production red has only taken 2 days off in 2012 so far. Go Penny!

 

[ChicKat]

They will take breaks from time to time.

Have you checked to make sure that there are no parasites on/in her? Sometimes that will stop egg laying.

good luck with it.


Love your part of the country! Holland---MI. :0)

 

[Fierlin1182]

The chooks at my place usually lay an egg a day too, but they won't be able to keep this up for two years straight. Don't be alarmed if one of them misses a day! As for longer breaks, this might have to do with molting, or as ChicKat says, perhaps parasites. Although this is the less likely cause.