⠀ Is it something missing in the diet?

[janmccraw]

I have a little silver laced black banny, who is 9 months old. She started laying her tiny eggs in August and did so for one month and then suddenly stopped laying completely. Is there something I can add to her diet to get her to lay again? The other normal size hens of the same age are laying daily, but not Lucy. She tried hatching other hen's eggs for about three weeks after she stopped laying, but other than that she seems to be doing fine.

She has Purina grains daily, fresh water, plus eats well with free ranging on greens and even gets treats for coming when her name is called. I keep gravel and egg shell mix down for the whole group of hens and even put apple cider in their water. So what is she lacking in her diet that doesn't show up with the other 9 hens?

Nobody seems to be able to tell me why she no longer lays, can you help?

Jan
In South Carolina

 

[chasiekitten12]

Is she broody? Does she sit in the nestbox and not lay a egg if so this is normal. If she is just not laying and not broody I would get some laying feed from the feed store and mix that in with their feed. Buy some insects or worms to give her a boost and some calcium. Good luck!

 

[DrMikelleRoeder]

It sounds as if she may have gone “broody” (trying to hatch eggs), and now she may simply not start laying again until spring. Sometimes if a hen is thrown out of lay in the fall due to interrupted light schedule, predator stress, or whatever, she may not come back into lay until the following spring. Hang in there – she may start laying again when day length starts naturally increasing in several months. I am not sure what you mean by “Purina grains” – if this is the scratch grains, you may want to be sure that she is receiving a layer feed, as scratch grains are not fortified and do not contain the nutrients necessary to support optimal egg production.