Hens on STRIKE!!!

[Happily Retired]

I have 8 Barred Rock hens all just under 2 yrs old which just quit laying eggs. All last year up until December they were laying 7 to 8 eggs per day. Over the winter the production dropped to 1 to 2 eggs per day and then about a month ago I was getting 3 to 4 eggs per day. Then like a light switch, production went to zero and has been like that for the last 2 weeks.

No change in feed, fresh water is available, no sign of illness or disease, all seem active and happy, crushed oyster shells are available and no signs of critter thievery. I have looked at a number of threads here as well as other websites and nothing seems to fit my situation.

So the only thing I can think of is that they are on strike

Any suggestions?

 

[SmiYa0126]

Hello! How much space do they have in their run?

 

[Happily Retired]

Both the coop and the run are 64 sf. They have access to both areas 24 hrs per day.

 

[aart]

Are you seeing any feathers laying around?
Wrong time of year, but they may be ready to molt.

 

[Happily Retired]

Thank for your thoughts! They finished their soft molts about the time their production increased to 3 to 4 eggs per day.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A few different possibilities. Have there been any lighting changes? Days getting shorter is a signal that they need to molt, even if they recently did molt. Some people extend lights during the winter and turn them off but it can easily be a security light where a bulb burned out.

Have they started hiding a nest on you? A lot of the time when they "stop" laying they don't really stop, just change locations.

Is something getting their eggs? I know you said no signs. Many egg eating critters leave signs behind like bits of eggshell or wet spots. Some in Texas that do not are snakes, canines, and humans. Snakes tend to visit a nest and eat some eggs, then disappear for a few days while they digest them before they return for another meal. If it is an everyday thing it is probably not a snake.

Fox and coyote would probably be more interested in your chickens but does a dog have access? Sometimes dogs will leave the chickens alone but eat eggs.

A Human doesn't necessarily mean a stranger that is a thief. Often it is somebody you know, often doing it as a practical joke.

My suggestion is to discretely mark an egg or two and leave them down there. If they disappear it means something is taking them. Do they free range or have access to a large area? If you can confine the chickens to the coop or coop and run some eggs might show up. That would mean they could not get to a hidden nest or you locked out an egg predator.

 

[ChasingChooks]

Similar thing happened to me - egg production 'stopped', but they were really just laying the eggs under the coop. Hit a jackpot down there, though they were hard to get out!!

 

[Happily Retired]

A few different possibilities. Have there been any lighting changes? Days getting shorter is a signal that they need to molt, even if they recently did molt. Some people extend lights during the winter and turn them off but it can easily be a security light where a bulb burned out.

Have they started hiding a nest on you? A lot of the time when they "stop" laying they don't really stop, just change locations.

Is something getting their eggs? I know you said no signs. Many egg eating critters leave signs behind like bits of eggshell or wet spots. Some in Texas that do not are snakes, canines, and humans. Snakes tend to visit a nest and eat some eggs, then disappear for a few days while they digest them before they return for another meal. If it is an everyday thing it is probably not a snake.

Fox and coyote would probably be more interested in your chickens but does a dog have access? Sometimes dogs will leave the chickens alone but eat eggs.

A Human doesn't necessarily mean a stranger that is a thief. Often it is somebody you know, often doing it as a practical joke.

My suggestion is to discretely mark an egg or two and leave them down there. If they disappear it means something is taking them. Do they free range or have access to a large area? If you can confine the chickens to the coop or coop and run some eggs might show up. That would mean they could not get to a hidden nest or you locked out an egg predator.

Thank you for offering these suggestions! There has not been any lighting changes other than what is naturally occurring due to seasonal changes. Right now we are getting about 11 hrs of sunlight per day.

If have looked all over for hidden nests to no avail. The hens are confined to the coop and the run and have no access to the area under the coop nor do they free range at all. I doubt that is a critter because the coop is 4 feet above ground and the only access is through the run which is fully encased with 1/2" wire mesh (not chicken wire).

I check several times a day to see if any eggs have been laid so unless they are laying at night there is nothing for the critters (including human critters) to get. That being said I will try placing a marked egg out there to see what happens.

I'll give them another few days and if there are no eggs then I will hang a copy of our chicken soup recipe in the coop to provide some incentive. That seemed to work when they first started laying.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

 

[Happily Retired]

Update.....Yesterday I harvested 31 eggs which was a accumulation of about 4 or 5 days. So looking back, I THINK that the problem was low calcium. A week or so after they went on strike, I noticed that their oyster shell container was low, not empty, just low so I filled it up. Two days later it was low again so I filled it up. Fast forward 3 weeks and voila eggs-a-plenty. So I am thinking that once they hit that deficiency level and quit laying it took 3 week or so for them it "digest" the oyster shells and build back their calcium levels which then triggered laying.

So just passing along my experience and to postulate that a small amount of available calcium may not be sufficient. If you encounter this problem, look to the AMOUNT of calcium.