Nada Huevos no Bueno

[LordEvan5]

My hens have stopped laying eggs. I know it’s winter and the days are short. But my buddy who I have sort of a chicken raising partnership with is getting record egg production. They were doing good but then we had a hen get a cold and when I reintroduced her egg laying sort of just petered out. Do you guys have any thoughts. I added a picture of the chicken area if anyone wants to see it for diagnosis or something seems someone always asks.

 

[hysop]

What I've heard is if this is the chickens' first year laying and they haven't molted yet, then they can lay throughout the winter. Some breeds that are winter hardy also lay throughout the winter. And others give artificial light to keep their hens laying.

I don't do the artificial light thing, I don't have winter hardy hens. My hens stopped laying early this year for some reason. All the ones I currently have are young and have never laid an egg, so I'm sure they'll lay soon. They went through a lot of stress with moving them pens and consolidating all my hens.

What are your hens eating?

Edit to add: if they're molting then they're using all their protein intake to grow feathers. Upping their protein may help.

 

[rosemarythyme]

How long ago did you reintroduce the bird that was ill? If she was gone a while and had to be reintegrated, that could be enough change to throw the whole flock off lay for a while (on top of it being winter and thus shortened daylight hours).