My chickens arent laying

[CityKidChickens]

My chickens have laid previously for a while but for the past 2 or three days they haven't we ran out of feed so for the last two or three weeks we just gave them other scraps. Could this be the issue? Why arent they laying?

 

[1235467]

You definitely need to give them their normal feed again as it contains all they nutrients they need to be healthy. I am not totally sure why they are not laying, but it could be partly down to not having the right food.

 

[ellenscoop]

Are you 100% sure that you don't have an invading rat snake? A couple months back, I went through the same situation as you---thinking that there was something wrong with my hen and then one day I walked into my coop and found a 6 ft black rat snake inside my chicken coop, eating my eggs. Snakes are very elusive and they are able to squeeze inside the smallest of holes and cracks as well as climb very well. I found some good information about how to deal with rat snakes on PoultryDVM. They also did a good infographic on the subject last month - here is a link, http://www.poultrydvm.com/featured-infographic/dealing-with-ratsnakes-in-chicken-coops

Good luck!