I have a 2 part problem.....

[SomeChickinTN]

First.....I think either something (a snake) is getting my eggs, or my chickens are too stressed to lay.

And second....Either my rooster is hurting the hens, or something else is trying to.

Initially we'd been leaving the pop door open so the chickens could go out in the morning on their own. That worked fine for months. One morning I went to check for eggs (none for awhile by then) and there was a bloody hen cowered in the corner of the coop. I thought she was dead just from how bad it was, but she wasn't, and we had to put her down.

Her feathers had been plucked out in a rough circle on her back above her tail feathers. The whole area was bloody and there was a shallow hole. I thought it was the rooster or one of the hens, but none of them appeared to have any blood on them.

So then we started locking the pop door at night and we started getting a dozen eggs a day again. Couple weeks later, here we are again, not getting any eggs, and a couple of the hens are missing feathers in the same pattern as the first one.

The coop itself is totally secure. The run is less secure, but is covered. If something external got the first chicken, it would have had to climb the run and squeeze through the top part and then go through the pop door. But the pop door has been closed and so, wouldn't explain the other hens having the same feather loss pattern now.

Which leads me to think it's my jerk rooster. He's so aggressive towards me that I don't even go in the coop anymore. And I've seen him pull out their feathers and be aggressive with the hens. But would that cause the hens to stop laying?

 

[50-45-1]

first, why exactly do you want to have a rooster?
He may be causing the feather loss due to his ungentelman tactics during mating, also are his spurs to long? I keep my roosters spurs clipped as roosters can slice open the sides of hens by accident during mating.
I would never keep an human aggresive rooster under any cercumstance. To many nice respectful roosters out there to keep a bad actor. Cull him.
A racoon can gain access easily in the way you describe. Keep your chickens closed and locked securely in your coop at night.
Good luck!

 

[SomeChickinTN]

Initially I wanted a rooster because I wanted to allow the hens to brood and raise their own chicks, but that's not so important to me anymore. I haven't gone into the coop since he reached maturity and snuck up behind me. At first, I tried showing dominance, until I realized that only made him more aggressive. Then egg collecting was delegated to my oldest son, as the rooster still runs from him. But if he's stressing out the hens, and I'm fine with incubating chicks if I have to I suppose I don't need him anyway.

 

[50-45-1]

It would be nice to know how many chickens you have and exactly how much space they have totol... how much space inside to coop, and how much run during the day.
Confined it to small of an area chicken can become aggressive and canabalistic out of boredom and stress of overcrowding.
Ever hear the term "cooped up" or "hen pecked"?
The reality is not pretty. The weakest bird get injured...blood is drawn...and the dinosaur DNA comes out in the others.

 

[SomeChickinTN]

It would be nice to know how many chickens you have and exactly how much space they have totol... how much space inside to coop, and how much run during the day.
Confined it to small of an area chicken can become aggressive and canabalistic out of boredom and stress of overcrowding.
Ever hear the term "cooped up" or "hen pecked"?
The reality is not pretty. The weakest bird get injured...blood is drawn...and the dinosaur DNA comes out in the others.

We have a dozen hens and 1 rooster. The coop is about 48 square feet, and the run is 20ftx10ft. They've been happy until just recently. I can't quite figure out why they are not laying.

I moved the rooster to the (permanent) tractor, and totally cleaned out the coop. There's no evidence of egg eating, and I found just 3 eggs under the straw. They're getting regular laying pellets from the feed store...

Eta: The egg problem seems to have started a couple months ago when I finally broke a broody. I was going to let her set, but it was a newbie disaster in the end. So when she was off the nest I took all the eggs and cleaned out the boxes. They stopped laying. Then I put a dummy egg in the boxes and They started laying and immediately went broody again. I broke her again and they stopped laying....

 

[aart]

So you free range most the time?
How old are these birds?

 

[50-45-1]

I dont think the breaking of a broody would stop the whole flock from laying, it doesn't mine any way.
Are you sure they arent hiding a nest somewhere?
The intensive heat can slow down egg production.im glad you have separated the rooster, now maybe you can start to interact with your chickens again without fear of attack.

 

[Dachshund lady59]

I would like to say it is just one of the things you described, however it may be a combination of 2 or of all of them.
I killed 4 snakes while mine were broody & 1 after the chicks had hatched. Put out moth balls in both the coop and brooder room.

My Roos were striping feathers from to frequent breeding so I separated them (2) from the flock (have/had 26 hens, loss of some had me reducing # of roos). Added 1 Roo back because have had several request for chicks from friends. But put Chicken Aprons on the hens that still needed healing/feather replacement.

Coop & run boredom and over crowding, I add 9 10 week old to replace the ones killed by my darn dogs. They started pecking and pulling feathers. Started 10 to 12 hrs of free range.

All this seemed to help until the Guinea went broody last week. Now 2 other hens are broody to. Lol low number of eggs again. 1 of them is nesting with the Guinea and no way am i sticking my hand under her again.
Anyway i hope this helps. Sometimes it is a guessing game to determine the causes.

 

[SomeChickinTN]

So you free range most the time?
How old are these birds?

No, I don't free range. They've been in the coop/run since last winter. I let them run around my backyard today for the first time for a few hours.

4 of the birds are within range of being too old to lay. They were given to me after their second molt.
5 are around 2 years old, and 3 are less than a year old.

 

[SomeChickinTN]

I dont think the breaking of a broody would stop the whole flock from laying, it doesn't mine any way.
Are you sure they arent hiding a nest somewhere?
The intensive heat can slow down egg production.im glad you have separated the rooster, now maybe you can start to interact with your chickens again without fear of attack.

I haven't found any hidden nests yet. I've looked around, but there aren't many hiding places in the run or coop. Since removing the rooster I've gotten about 2 eggs a day. I noticed I barely hear the egg song either. I'd thought maybe the rooster had been harassing them every time they went to lay or something. But out of the 12 hens, at least 8 of them are young enough to lay consistently. I'm still trying to investigate. I have no idea what time of year they slow down in laying.