New rooster -stop egg production?

[ncwormfarmer]

Hi, for the last 3 weeks I have seen egg production completely drop to zero. I had 4 buff Orpington hens which were giving me about 14 eggs/week. They are two years old now.
About 7 weeks ago I had introduced a new bird (after 2week quarantine period). He is buff orp too but only about 7 weeks old at that time. I wanted to start hatching chicks.

They took to him nicely and he was at bottom of pecking order. Then gradually as he grew he has climbed up. The egg production was dropping slightly. Then one week back to normal. After that no eggs for 3 weeks straight.

First thought was predators, but no signs of shells, no hidden nests, etc. as temps dropped her I thought if it was snake then this would improve. But not the case. Also I have artificial lighting... Still works and on schedule.

So question... Is it possible the as rooster rose in pecking order other birds were stressed and gradually stopped laying?

Read on another post about mini molts, never heard of that... But the hens molted in spring. And right now there are a lot of feathers on coop. Would they do a mini molt right before fall? I thought maybe feathers were from mating and it pecking order conflicts.

 

[Judy]

Sounds like a molt. Any stressor can slow or even stop egg production, and a stressor can also trigger a molt. A new roo might cause a drop in egg production for a few days, but if there is not a big problem between them, like, his mating too roughly so they try to run away from him, it shouldn't last tlong.