my chicken only layed 3 eggs before stopping! help!

[adcockfarm]

We have 6 chickens and our RIR just started laying. she was a little more than 18 weeks when she started laying. she only layed 3 eggs before stopping. it has been a week now and still no egg!

is this normal? please help! -Dalton Adcock

 

[chicmom]

Hello! Could your hen be laying outside somewhere? Do you allow them to free range at all, where she could have a secret spot?

 

[adcockfarm]

we do free range them but we left them in one day and still no egg. occasionally she will go into the nesting box and work on a nest. also, the first three eggs were in the nesting box.

 

[chicmom]

Is your coop big enough to where you could keep them in for two days and see what happens? Sometimes they don't lay very regularly at first, but RIR's are generally very good layers......

Could something be eating the eggs? Chickens will eat their own eggs sometimes. Also the beloved family dog might eat them.

Could a neighbor be taking them? (A friend had a neighbor stealing eggs! I couldn't believe it!)

Whenever I have pullets that are about to lay, (now I have a large hen house with an attached chicken run), I will keep them in the coop/run for a while, until they get into the habit of laying in the nest boxes.

My girls have been laying for quite some time now, and one day, I left them out from morning until dark, and I only got 3 eggs. It was a little experiment I did. Bad outcome. Now they only get to free range after 5pm, when I get home from work. Maybe your hens have found a really cozy spot under the porch or a bush or behind a bale of hay......

Keep me posted!
Sharon