Hens not laying

[realsis]

My.pullet did a partial molt after being broody and she's only 10 months old. after the partial molt she began laying as usual again

 

[teafreak35]

What I have found to be true is that happy hens are laying hens. In other words, ANYTHING that disrupts their schedule, lives, moods or comfort will affect their laying. I like to think of them as life altering occurences. All but one chicken being attacked and killed obviously had an affect on the lone chicken. Picking up hens and moving them to a new place affects their schedule, their comfort AND their mood. Adding new hens means a disruption in the established pecking order. Think of anything out of the ordinary as a rock being thrown into a lake...it makes ripples. The more rocks, the more ripples. Chickens will only get back to laying once all the ripples have calmed down and everything has gotten back to normal...or a new normal has had time to be established. I would give them time. We made some big changes coop wise and flock wise last year and it affected laying for the rest of the season. However, this year things have been relatively calm and all those who had quit laying came back in and started laying again.

Give them time to establish pecking order, make sure all their needs are met, protect them and give them a nice environment and eventually they will become happy and then they will start laying again.

 

[Lonesomedove]

Ready to start over! I have 28 hens one rooster and one Tom turkey! and I am getting six to ten eggs a day. I watched a youtube video on "Identifying productive laying hens". My wife and I watched the video and went out to check our hens. We THINK we found some hens were not producing and figures the others were producing. Again we have 28 hens and only getting six to ten eggs a day. I have eight nesting boxes three feet off the ground and a two story 3x3 on the ground. They free range during the day and are locked up at night. I feed them Scratch and Layena crumble as well as scraps. I am not sure what the ages of the hens are. I have acquired different groups of hens not knowing their ages at different times. I have dusted for mites and give fresh water daily. About to get rid of all of them and start over! Any suggestions?

 

[teafreak35]

Age definitely has much to do with laying. You mentioned that you, possibly, don't know the ages of many of them. You only get about 2-3 years of good laying out of a hen until they come to a point where they may lay only every other day or less. Could it be possible that different hens are laying on different days?

I have a mixed flock myself. Some of my hens are just a year old. These hens lay EVERY day. However, my golden girls are about two years old and have slowed down. I can count on them to lay every other day. So, having 9 hens, some days I get 5 eggs and other days I get 8-9.

Another thought is, bringing a lot of different hens in from different places can create a somewhat dysfunctional family. They'll figure it out eventually, but in the beginning it creates a lot of stress. If you haven't had them ALL very long then I'd give it a little while. In fact, I've had stressful events happen before that would shut down my hens for the rest of the season. However, they would have figured everything out and start laying again once things calm down and the new season comes around.

This year I actually stimulated my hens to start laying sooner by the addition of a heat lamp in their coop at night. It has been proven that laying is tied to length of day...so that's another thing to consider, as well.

Hope that jogs some thoughts. I don't think I'd give up on them unless you're sure they won't lay again.

 

[LukensFarms]

Try g

Ready to start over! I have 28 hens one rooster and one Tom turkey! and I am getting six to ten eggs a day. I watched a youtube video on "Identifying productive laying hens". My wife and I watched the video and went out to check our hens. We THINK we found some hens were not producing and figures the others were producing. Again we have 28 hens and only getting six to ten eggs a day. I have eight nesting boxes three feet off the ground and a two story 3x3 on the ground. They free range during the day and are locked up at night. I feed them Scratch and Layena crumble as well as scraps. I am not sure what the ages of the hens are. I have acquired different groups of hens not knowing their ages at different times. I have dusted for mites and give fresh water daily. About to get rid of all of them and start over! Any suggestions?

try gathering eggs three times a day. It appears to me you may have some chickens that eat eggs.

 

[ismitchellsan]

Hi everyone,

I'm having a similar problem. One of my hens just stopped laying a few months ago. But no trauma. We thought she was molting but not that either. She goes in the nesting box daily like she's laying but there's never anything there. The rest of the girls are laying consistently as always. It doesn't get super cold here so I don't think that's a factor either. Especially since the others are laying without issue. Any ideas?

THANKS!