New nesting material causes laying to stop?

[snkjohnson]

My 16 hens have suddenly pretty much all stopped laying. It's early spring and I've supplemented with some light, so they slowed down just a bit in the winter, but had just started picking back up. I've been getting around 5-8 eggs daily...then the other day I got 4 eggs, then 3, then 2, then 1 today. It's getting lighter for longer outside, weather has been pleasant, they have food and water, nothing has changed, EXCEPT I put new nesting pads (those kind of spikey silicone ones that are washable) in place of my old straw ones..They laid on them regularly for a day or two and then the sudden decrease...could this be causing the sudden stop in production? Or am I missing something, are there other possible causes? (The only other time this has happened was when they knocked over their water and went without any for one day, 3 weeks to start laying again. But that didn't happen this time.) TIA!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I might try putting the straw back in at least one nest and see. Changes stresses them out will cause them to halt laying.