My girls won't lay

[Fox66]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

Do they have a specific place to lay their eggs? They could be eating them, especially if they are out in the open are bored. And once they get started on egg eating, there is no stopping them. I have a flock of egg eaters and the only way to stop them is to hang curtains over the nest boxes so that the box is nice and dark on the inside. They go into lay an egg and generally they leave them alone. I also keep fake eggs in there too, to stop the playing with eggs.

If they honestly are not laying eggs, they either have some health issue preventing them from laying or they are old hens that are out of eggs. Generally old hens act old, but it's hard to tell a young hen from an old hen other then her being slower than the younger ones.

Good luck with your birds and welcome to our roost!

I've watched them pretty closely for about a week and don't think that's the case. They appear to be healthy eyes are clear and they move about like young hens. I've read somewhere that feeding them red peppers somehow resets the process and gets them laying again. Going to try it and see what happens. Hopefully it does the trick.

 

[TwoCrows]

Lurking predators can stop the laying, nervous hens won't lay.

 

[drumstick diva]

You've been given very good advice & suggestions - I can't think of anything to add but

 

[Kiki]

you may want to read this:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4093037/

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In Exp. 1, there were no significant differences observed for egg-laying performance, feed consumption or feed conversion ratio (p>0.05) due to inclusion of red pepper pigment in the diet (Table 2). T

@DwayneNLiz ^^

 

[DwayneNLiz]

@Fox66 moving them would stress them they should start laying again about 2 weeks later, then the molt hit -it can take a month or so after feathers are back for them to start laying again

it also looks like they have LOTS of places to hide a nest, like under a shed, in the woods,
i recently had my ducks lay in my wood pile - dont even know how they got INTO it but the eggs were there

Good Luck!

 

[Cynthia12]

One thing to try...if you are sure they .. were laying before. And, that you have tried, and watched, and sure that none of the eggs are being taken, eaten..or just not laid now..and, of their age...all of the things mentioned by the others above..
Try cayenne pepper to jump start. I have a friend that lives in the colder part of our state. When they are slow to start in the spring, she swears by it. I did try it once when they were late to start reg. It worked! It won't hurt them, just add some to their feed, or on a treat a couple of times a day.

 

[Fox66]

One thing to try...if you are sure they .. were laying before. And, that you have tried, and watched, and sure that none of the eggs are being taken, eaten..or just not laid now..and, of their age...all of the things mentioned by the others above..
Try cayenne pepper to jump start. I have a friend that lives in the colder part of our state. When they are slow to start in the spring, she swears by it. I did try it once when they were late to start reg. It worked! It won't hurt them, just add some to their feed, or on a treat a couple of times a day.

I read about that and red peppers so I gave them some eirlier today.They went crazy eating them all up. Do you know how long it takes once they've eaten them to start laying again?

 

[Cynthia12]

I don't, I would give them a couple of days. Good luck to you. I'm watching this thread, so let us know what's up!

 

[Fox66]

Update both girls are now laying again. I want to thank everyone for they're great advice. I'd don't know if it was the feather fixer or the red peppers or just coincidence. But now all four of my girls are laying now....

 

[Kiki]