Hens stopped laying eggs

[birdwrangler057]

Please slow down and think a bit more before advising.
The rule of thumb(minimal IMO) is 4sqft in coop and 10sqft in run.
Her light is on a timer....12-14 hours is the usual range... 16 is max.

I knew about the 10sqft per hen for run, but I have 7 hens that fit very comfortably in a 10 x 5 A frame coop, no problem. Also, I would say 12 hours is probably fine, but 16 hours is going to cut into their sleep. Now, I am only giving this advice because I have tested and proved it correct, but your are kind of the chicken veteran, so, what ever you think.

 

[iawoodchip]

My line of thinking. White leghorns are supposed to be great layers, so I wouldn't think the whole flock would stop all at once. Slow down? Yes. Even without added light you should be getting some eggs. I think I would be looking for any possible health issue. Molting, or something that may be disturbing them. Maybe even overheating or ventilation issue. Unless egg sales are an issue, I personally wouldn't mess around with added light .

 

[Cindy in PA]

It can take several weeks of lights to start them laying again.

 

[Spartan22]

This is my first year raising chickens and seem to learn more and more each day. I live in north central Ohio and about 3 weeks ago my hens stopped laying. I was told to add light to my coop and put them on a timer to give hens 14-16 hours of light. I did this about 2 weeks ago. I got timer set for 15 hours of light. I added about 500 lumens in my 8x8 coop. Is this enough lumens??? How long till they lay again???

Welcome fellow Ohioan! I'm in northeast Ohio. I have couple of leghorns the first year along with other breeds, and they are my champ layers, almost 7 eggs/bird per week and their also my mean hens the first year in comparison to my 3-5 eggs/week brown layers. I added my light (40 watt clear bulb) high above 9 feet in the coop on timer only for 2 hours in the morning 6-8 AM started month of October-December (gives them almost 12 hours of natural/artificial light), more for logistic purpose for me in making sure they have clean food/water and clean poop boards before I head to work. I remove the lights in January so they will have the natural routine and so far works great for me for almost 3 years of chicken keeping since lots of friends rely on our non washed eggs. Out of our first generation layers (we got 3 gens of hens living together) we get 2 XL eggs/daily since most are molting the first time. The rest of the eggs we get are from 2nd & 3rd gens (my Marans takes 2 months of laying breaks).

Try to lay off the treats and stick w/ laying feeds that will give them more balance nutrition since leghorns' feed conversion ratio is amazing. They are my "infatigueable" layers it amazes us, we bought 2 more on our 3rd year of hens. At first I thought I have a love/hate with leghorns, these new layers are as calm as my other brown layers.

As other posters mentioned, there could be an underlying reasons for your hens to stop laying, bullying? Adequate space? Too much treats? Bugs, lice, mites? Gradual introduction of supplement lights? Too much lights? My leghorns are my early to bed & early risers and also the early morning layers.

Hope these helps, we've seen some friends enthused w/ hens the first year then gave up after spending thousands on coops/runs and discouraged not getting enough eggs couple of yrs later.

 

[Little Fuzzy]

They say some chickens just slow down their egg laying during the winter. When I bought my chicks I selected the type known to be good winter layers since thats the time of year I use more eggs. Also mine are not laying right now due to molt.

 

[harmonyhillsnc]

This is our first year raising chickens. A friend was moving and unable to take her girls so we gave them a home. They are a mixed flock consisting of:
2-Brahmas, 2-Ameracaunas, 1-Wyandotte, 4-Polish Crested, 1-Sultan, 1-Crevicor, 1-Turken, 1-Barred Rock, 1-Blue Andalusian. These girls are all two years old. They all were laying regularly until recently. My Andalusian went through a horrible molt and I didn't think she was going to make it. She was so weak. I was feeding her with a dropper daily and gave her Corid to help give her a boost. She finally bounced back. All of these girls have gone through some phase of molting and/or still are.
We did add some new girls to the flock back in October. We added 8-Blue Copper Marans, 2-Wellsummers, and 1-Ameracauna pullet.
To give you some background our coop is 12'x12', the big girls and tweens as we call the Marans free range all day in our pasture/woods. The little ones (Wellsummers & Ameracauna) they didn't arrive until about 3 weeks later still have free range of their run which is approximately 20'x40'. We have been letting them start to get out with the other girls a little in the afternoons when the weather is nice.
As far as diet goes everyone gets organic feed, scratch, and veggies regularly. The Tweens and the big girls get a 50/50 mixture of starter crumbles & layer pellets. The little ones get starter crumbles with some layer pellets mixed in. (My thinking on that is when they are with the other girls they will be eating so and want them to start getting used to it.) At this point my head is spinning because they seem happy. They come when I call them. They are always pecking around. Just want them to start laying again. I know the younger ones won't be laying for a bit and I'm okay with that. I just want to know what I'm doing wrong so I can fix it. Hoping to get some suggestions.
Thanks,
Summer

 

[aart]

This is our first year raising chickens. A friend was moving and unable to take her girls so we gave them a home. They are a mixed flock consisting of:
2-Brahmas, 2-Ameracaunas, 1-Wyandotte, 4-Polish Crested, 1-Sultan, 1-Crevicor, 1-Turken, 1-Barred Rock, 1-Blue Andalusian. These girls are all two years old. They all were laying regularly until recently. My Andalusian went through a horrible molt and I didn't think she was going to make it. She was so weak. I was feeding her with a dropper daily and gave her Corid to help give her a boost. She finally bounced back. All of these girls have gone through some phase of molting and/or still are.
We did add some new girls to the flock back in October. We added 8-Blue Copper Marans, 2-Wellsummers, and 1-Ameracauna pullet.
To give you some background our coop is 12'x12', the big girls and tweens as we call the Marans free range all day in our pasture/woods. The little ones (Wellsummers & Ameracauna) they didn't arrive until about 3 weeks later still have free range of their run which is approximately 20'x40'. We have been letting them start to get out with the other girls a little in the afternoons when the weather is nice.
As far as diet goes everyone gets organic feed, scratch, and veggies regularly. The Tweens and the big girls get a 50/50 mixture of starter crumbles & layer pellets. The little ones get starter crumbles with some layer pellets mixed in. (My thinking on that is when they are with the other girls they will be eating so and want them to start getting used to it.) At this point my head is spinning because they seem happy. They come when I call them. They are always pecking around. Just want them to start laying again. I know the younger ones won't be laying for a bit and I'm okay with that. I just want to know what I'm doing wrong so I can fix it. Hoping to get some suggestions.
Thanks,
Summer

Welcome to BYC!
Wow, you jumped in...sounds like a nice flock and nice sized coop.

One thing really pops out...Corid is for treating the protozoan coccidiosa.
It is not a vitamin that would "give her a boost"....in fact it blocks thiamine uptake.
Maybe read up on that.

How old are the younger birds?
The molters may not start laying for awhile, depending on how soon they get their feathers grown back in, get back in condition, and react to the now finally the slowly increasing daylight hours.

It sounds like your feeding regime may be lacking in some protein.....and it's not a great idea to feed non-laying birds layer feed.
Layer feed is usually pretty low in protein(~16%), more protein is needed for growing and molting birds, and more calcium than non layers need.
Many folks feed a starter, grower, all flock type formulation.....lots of different names for them.
The important thing is to learn to read the nutritional information tags sewn into the bottom and all feed bags.


My feeding blurb:
I like to feed a flock raiser/grower/finisher 20% protein crumble full time to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat. I do grind up the crumbles (in the blender) for the chicks for the first week or so.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer. I adjust the amounts of other feeds to get the protein levels desired with varying situations.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

 

[rebrascora]

Quote: @harmonyhillsnc

You are not doing anything wrong, it's just that your expectation is too high! You need to think of eggs as a seasonal product and autumn/early winter is out of season. Like all produce, they can be artificially stimulated but that needs to be started in the late summer by supplemental lighting to prevent them from realising that the days are getting shorter and starting to or preparing for moult.
In my opinion it is better to let them moult when the natural daylight tells them it is time, than delay it with artificial light and perhaps end up with them being bald mid winter.

My hens started moulting late September/October and are just now starting to pick up laying again. I don't add supplemental lighting and obviously today is the shortest day and we get about 8hrs of daylight (if you can call this damp dismal, overcast sort of weather as daylight). Some of my chickens will not start back up until Feb or March but there is a significant increase on just 2 weeks ago....I'm getting now getting 7-10 eggs a day rather than 1 or 2 for the past few months.

Basically, your girls will start back up laying when they are ready. I do however agree with aart that a better diet will help them, particularly if you are going to supplement their layer ration with scratch and other lower protein feeds/veggies. Layer feed is designed as a complete feed to give laying hens all they need to produce eggs. If you feed them other things as well, they will eat less of the layer feed and not get enough protein, unless you supplement with meat, fish, eggs or insects that are higher in protein. I have fed my younger pullets and cockerels layer feed and not had any problems with the excess calcium, but it cannot be good for their system to have to remove the excess on a daily basis. Here in the UK I struggle to get a grower/flock raiser (other than chick crumb) that has more than 16% protein, so I have to be very sparing with the likes of whole grain treats....much as they love them!. The increased carbohydrate content of whole grains can also lead to fat unproductive chickens.... I butchered my neighbour's unproductive 3 year old hens for him earlier this year and was horrified to find huge deposits of solid yellow fat around all their organs and intestines as well as over their bellies and I am certain that this was due to an incorrect diet and resulted in not only their lack of productivity but also general health issues.

Hopefully your girls will start back up laying like my girls soon. Patience is the key.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[jessg84]

I have 4 hens that are just over a year old. One of my barred rocks started laying at the end of august. In November she went through a mini molt and has not layed an egg since then. My other barred rock went through a mini molt as well but she started laying again about 2 months ago. Prior to the molt I did treat my hens with panacur and Wazine for round worms and about a month ago I had one hen suddenly die. The one that is not laying is top of the pecking order. I'm just wondering if any of these factors caused her to stop. She did stop the squat when she molted and started doing it again Maybe 2 months ago. Her comb did become pale but has been red again for a while. I have 2 other hens that never stopped laying over the winter.