Hens have stopped laying? One misshaped egg in 4 days?

Rustysflock

Songster
Apr 7, 2018
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hello fellow feathered friend keepers.
I have 7 hens and until now have been producing between 4-6 eggs a day.
No sign of parasites, they have a nice coop and run. We have a cockeral running with them. The only difference is we introduced another hen and a young cockerel a few weeks ago? We are building the new pair a coop of their own but as only young (similar size to original hens though) we thought they would be fine. There is no fighting/pecking etc.
Any ideas? Otherwise we will be having roast chicken for a few months according to my partner!
 
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Hi, we have 7 hens and 2 roosters. We live in Devon, England.
The hens are 5 months and have been laying well, between 5-6 eggs a day most days.
Have sat and watched them and their behaviour seems normal to me.
The 2 newer birds are about a month younger, hen was POL when we got her a few weeks back.
Does this help? Any advice greatly appreciated
 
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Do you free range?
Layers could be hiding their eggs what with the 'invasion'.

Adding new birds causes stress.
New birds also could have brought disease that is not obviously apparent.
Curious, why add a second male?

FYI.....semantics, maybe, but can be important communication terms when discussing chicken behavior.
Female chickens are called pullets until one year of age, then they are called hens.
Male chickens are called cockerels until one year of age, then they are called cocks(or cockbirds or roosters).
Age in weeks or months is always a good thing to note.
 
Thank you for your this. Only been keeping chickens a short while so happy to learn the ‘proper’ language.
We introduced the two light sussex to our flock of buff sussex as were, and still are making them their own coop and enclosure. We thought the building work would be finished that week but its taken longer due to unforeeen circumstances.
Their enclosure is 25m square so hsvr a lot of lovely ground to safely roam. The new one is joined on next to it. Just triple protecting from predators and it will be done. Then normal set up will restored.
As they have a lot of room and of the same breed i did not realise it would stress them out. (Lesson learnt and wont be repeated)
New birds were health checked, vaccinated and wormed before bringing home.
Thsnk you again for your info and advice
 

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