My hens stopped laying eggs!

[Peregrine]

Well, I've had the hens in solitary confinement for a week now, but still no eggs.

A few days ago, I noticed that their combs looked a brighter red, but now they're back to a pinkish-color. Is there any stock in what the old man told me about comb color?

Two more weeks to go. They better lay soon, or they'll be dinner. I sure hope not; one of them is a really pretty golden color, and I would love to keep her!

 

[Peregrine]

WE GOT AN EGG!!!!!!

Yesterday, we got one egg; not sure which hen laid it. It's about time; it's almost been two weeks. We've been giving them nothing but layer feed--no more kitchen scraps, unless it's meat.
No egg today, and it's mid-afternoon, but the day's not over yet........

 

[Peregrine]

We got another egg!

Found it last night when I went to put the chickens in. Will we get one (or two) today, too?

 

[Peregrine]

No egg yesterday.

I have one hen that lays about every 1 1/2 days (morning, afternoon, then skips a day). Maybe this one will be the same?

 

[Peregrine]

Every 1 1/2 days seems to be the trend, and I think I know which hen it's coming from. I've been reading about egg-bound hens, and I felt the abdomen of the other hen. It felt like something was there, though I wasn't sure if what I was feeling was an egg or internal organs. So I felt some of my other hens, and they felt really different, almost hollow. I'm going to try the warm bath treatment to see if anything works, but I'm not sure this is the cause. Can an egg bound hen look otherwise perfectly healthy? Can they stay egg bound for 3 months with no ill effects? This is my last ditch effort to try to save my hen from the chopping block.

 

[Carolyn]

I'd season them liberally with red pepper before I roast them!!!

Seriously, my elderly aunt told me to feed my hens red hot peppers when they decided to quit laying in early spring. Great results from 2 of the 3....when I eventually culled #3 she had never laid and had no evidence of forming any eggs; she was about a year old.

Red peppers won't hurt them and they like them. I've had them strip my thai pepper plant in the past. I just used CRP, crushed red pepper flakes from the grocery. Good luck, I know how frustrating it is. Someone else needs to address egg bound but I don't think they last very long when egg bound, not laying at all.

 

[Peregrine]

Yeah, I had a friend tell me to feed them CRP in the winter to encourage hens to lay more. I've done that, but I stopped when the weather started getting warmer and the daylight longer (even though we do have artificial light for the winter). The first day when I got an egg from one of the hens, we had just fed them a hard boiled egg, shell and all. We did that for the next few days and got a few more eggs. Thinking we were on a role, and not wanting to feed an egg every day to get an egg everyday, we stopped three days ago, and no egg for the past two days!

I gave my non-laying hen the warm bath this afternoon--had her in the tub for an hour! I felt inside her vent

but all I got was pooped on! After 1/2 an hour she started pushing, like she was trying to push something out; I felt like I was helping a friend give birth. But after 30 min. of intermitent pushing, all that came out was a lot of poop.

It's somewhat comforting to know that you had a year old chicken that never showed any signs of laying. I think that may be what we have here. I will try the red pepper one last time, but seeing as how it's week 3, the budget is tight, and my DH doesn't want to spend feed on a hen not giving us anything in return, I'm afraid she's on a one way road to the freezer.

I'll keep you posted....

 

[Peregrine]

Yesterday we gave crushed red pepper to the 2 hens, and the one that has given us a few eggs so far gave us another. Still nothing from the other one.

Do you think it could be a case of inbreeding? The 2 hens have the same father, different mothers, but all 3 came from the same local farmer. Could the father and mother of the one not laying be related, causing her to not lay?

Has anyone ever heard of this before?

 

[Peregrine]

I'm not sure if anyone is following my chicken reality show, but just in case, here's an update:

We've let the hens back in with the rest of the flock. The one who was laying, stopped. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but she only has one leg (racoon incounter when 6 weeks old), and the yonger rooster who doesn't have many hens favors her because she's an easy target. My husband thinks this is stressing her out, and that's why she's not laying. Solution: buy a few full-grown hens for the rooster. Let's see if it works...

The other hen that did not lay at all we decided to send to the cookpot. With two other roos just weeks away from being full grown, we were planning on killing them all at the same time. Then last week, lo, and behold, there's a blue egg in the nest! For the next few days I kept my eye on her. I saw her go into the nest, but never saw another egg. I thought maybe my presence was frightening her. Then today I found a few egg-whites and blue egg shell remnants in the nest, and I suspect that she's eating her eggs. So I did a search on this wonderful site to see how to solve the problem. I'm going to try the golf balls first; I've got some laying around, and maybe they'll encourage her to lay. Let's see if it works...

 

[Carolyn]

Are you sure she is the culprit? Sometimes it is hard to figure out but that would certainly explain why you aren't getting to eat eggs. Good luck.