My OE stopped laying

[Livia Ammon]

I have an Olive egger hen named Lacey. She looks and acts healthy and alert, and led me in quite a chase when I decided to inspect her today. She lays a lovely olive and speckled egg that is very unique and noticeable, and I really enjoy getting them, but she hasn’t layed in about a week, perhaps two.

She looks and acts healthy. The flock was de-parasited just about two weeks ago. She layed a couple eggs during the period that the medication was in effect, but stopped a little while later. I used a small amount of ivermectin cattle drench. She has no visible mite, worms, and her poops are normal. Her comb is the same red as normal, the only thing I noticed is that her vent might be a bit pale. Any ideas?

 

[Livia Ammon]

And she isn’t molting currently.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

How old is she? Have you changed anything in the coop/run? Added or removed any birds?

 

[Livia Ammon]

She is about 1 year old, I recently added about 10 young pullets who were allowed to free range with them for a week before they were combined. The pullets were hatched here or brought in as chicks. A few weeks ago, we added 4 new chickens, and just a few days ago, we traded a ISA brown hen for a brown laying blue hen

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

That’s a lot of change in her little chicken life. Sometimes that can effect laying while they sort out their new pecking order. Is it possible she has a hidden nest?

 

[Livia Ammon]

Possible, but not probable. They’ve been confined to the coop, which is large but not THAT large, for the last few days. Unless her break happened to coincide perfectly with a 72 hour lock-up period, I don’t think that she could have a hidden nest.

 

[Livia Ammon]

Now that I think about it, though, she’s probably stressed from one of the bossier new hens, Mama P, taking her roosting spot. Mama’s a silver pencilled Wyandotte, and she can be pretty aggressive, and it does just about coincide with when she stopped laying.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Hopefully she adjusts soon! Those are gorgeous eggs-I would miss them too