My chickens stopped laying!!!

[evpuco]

We went on vacation and had our neighbor feed our animals. We didn't ask him to collect the eggs since we thought we would just collect them after and hatch them. (we were gone 5 days) When we got home we only had 28 eggs! Since then we only get 2 eggs max a day or sometimes not even 1! We're not to happy about this . We have around a 100 chickens of a large assortment. They are also all staged. Some are 2 years old others 1 1/2 and some a 1 year and so on and so forth. Our egg laying was just starting to pick up since our hot summer and is almost over. Every day we had 18 eggs and the it was steadily growing since our other chickens started laying. We feed them all organic and scraps from the kitchen. If anyone has any info on this please help!!!

 

[rc4u]

i think if the diet changed that would have something to do with it as you said they get scraps then maybe didnt get any while you were gone[at least i took it that way] wow a hundred chickens and only 18 eggs a day...i have 14 hens and get 11-13 per day..but i guess its all different...and i guess mine started laying really early this time..18 weeks and i had eggs then more and more..i think theres 1 not laying yet...jeff

 

[smarsh]

are you sure they were getting fed while you were gone? doesn't seem like a logical thing to happen so quickly.
I would guess,and guess is all it is, that either serious stress from harrassment or just not getting food, would be the only things to cause this. They look healthy enough I guess? It is the time of year when molt could start, so older hens may be slowing, the first year ones should not however.