No eggs since September

[chuckachucka]

I have a flock of 6 bantam hens. Two of them are 3 years old, two of them are 2 years old, and two of them just turned 1. Out of the six, two of them have always been quite poor layers (they would lay 2-3 eggs a week in spring/summer), the rest lay 4-6 eggs a week at their peak.

Anyway all 6 have stopped laying and there hasn't been a single egg since about the middle of September. I live in England where we are heading into winter, but last year and in previous years with past hens, they still produced a few eggs all autmun/winter except for only about 3 or 4 weeks at the end of December/start of January.

Now at the start of September I did completely replace their coop after problems with rats, so I know the stress will have contributed. After that they all moulted which took about another month. But every hen was finished moulting by the middle of October.

If shortage of daylight is now the problem I'm thinking they aren't going to resume laying until at least late February since the daylight hours then is the same as it is in late October.

If that is the case, is it normal for hens to stop laying for 4 months? I suppose I'm just confused because in previous years the eggs didn't stop for anywhere near that long.

 

[Offshoreorca]

It can be a number of things - a few of mine haven’t been laying since September. If they go into an earlier molt and when they come out of it the days are already very short, then they sometimes don’t begin laying again until after the Solstice. The older they get, the longer the molt break I find as well.

Make sure you check for external parasites and worms. Also drafts in the coop as both of those things can easily be missed and can be a factor in why you haven’t had eggs since September.

 

[Hei 20]

I have a flock of 6 bantam hens. Two of them are 3 years old, two of them are 2 years old, and two of them just turned 1. Out of the six, two of them have always been quite poor layers (they would lay 2-3 eggs a week in spring/summer), the rest lay 4-6 eggs a week at their peak.

Anyway all 6 have stopped laying and there hasn't been a single egg since about the middle of September. I live in England where we are heading into winter, but last year and in previous years with past hens, they still produced a few eggs all autmun/winter except for only about 3 or 4 weeks at the end of December/start of January.

Now at the start of September I did completely replace their coop after problems with rats, so I know the stress will have contributed. After that they all moulted which took about another month. But every hen was finished moulting by the middle of October.

If shortage of daylight is now the problem I'm thinking they aren't going to resume laying until at least late February since the daylight hours then is the same as it is in late October.

If that is the case, is it normal for hens to stop laying for 4 months? I suppose I'm just confused because in previous years the eggs didn't stop for anywhere near that long.

 

[rosemarythyme]

4 month stoppage is pretty normal for me, we get noticeably shorter daylight hours in winter so my hens stop laying from molt onset until weeks after winter solstice.

 

[chuckachucka]

Thanks for the replies. I've just treated them for worms. Hopefully it was just the stress of the coop change forcing them into early moult and they are now waiting for a bit more light. I have to say, I'm missing the eggs, but I'm enjoying the blissful quiet of non laying hens!