No Eggs!

[Specialk3749]

In August, my young hens started laying and we were thrilled! Out of the 10 leghorn hens that I had, I was getting 7-8 eggs a day. My brown layers started laying late in September and I was only getting 3 eggs a day out of the 10 of those and some days none at all. Last month (in October), my dogs got into the fence and killed two of my leghorns. Right after that, they stopped laying and it has now been weeks since I have gotten an egg. I have looked around for a secret nest and have not found one. I am feeding them layer and they are free range. I have a light in the shed for them, but I live in SW Michigan and it has been very cloudy this month! Could it have been the stress of the dogs, or not enough light to cause NO eggs? I have raised chickens before and in the winter months have seen a decline of eggs, but not completely stop, especially this soon! Any suggestion as to what the problem could be?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Stress. I had a mixed flock of various egg and DP breeds and a beagle somehow got in there, chewed on a few and basically terrorized the flock. They wouldn't leave the coop for a week and I didn't get one egg from them for 2 months.

Any time there's a predator attack they shut down for a while.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Yes, it's normal for them to quit laying when you have predator stress. They will resume laying in time. If you see a lot of feathers laying around, they may be molting as well.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I wanted to add, when the whole flock quits laying, it's important to take them off of layer feed.

 

[Math]

In August, my young hens started laying and we were thrilled!  Out of the 10 leghorn hens that I had, I was getting 7-8 eggs a day.  My brown layers started laying late in September and I was only getting 3 eggs a day out of the 10 of those and some days none at all.  Last month (in October), my dogs got into the fence and killed two of my leghorns.  Right after that, they stopped laying and it has now been weeks since I have gotten an egg.  I have looked around for a secret nest and have not found one.  I am feeding them layer and they are free range.  I have a light in the shed for them, but I live in SW Michigan and it has been very cloudy this month!  Could it have been the stress of the dogs, or not enough light to cause NO eggs?  I have raised chickens before and in the winter months have seen a decline of eggs, but not completely stop, especially this soon!  Any suggestion as to what the problem could be?

Are the dogs off the seen now so the hens will not feel the stress? If the hens don't feel safe and happy they may not give you eggs.