Not laying

[Katynova]

It is 100+ degrees where I live. All of my hens stopped laying but 1. For a month now. Two are broody (since March!!)

How concerned should I be that they are not laying?

Buff Orpington’s.
Thank you xx

 

[sourland]

How old are they? It may just be a normal break in their laying cycle. I would break the broodiness of the two setting hens.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

It is 100+ degrees where I live. All of my hens stopped laying but 1. For a month now. Two are broody (since March!!)

How concerned should I be that they are not laying?

Buff Orpington’s.
Thank you xx

Sometimes heat can cause lapse in production (orps aren't especially heat tolerant). Is it possible their hiding a nest? I see 3 accounted for but how many hens do you have total when you say "all"? Age and feed routine including treats and supplements? Have you checked skin condition (for parasites), especially on the sitting hens to seed if it'slight pink or angry red/scabby at all? Egg thieves like rats (and sometimes crows) can be crafty as well.

Those two sitting hens may sit themselves to death.. give them chicks, break them, or send them to a home that will please??

Hope this helps with some ideas or clues to look for.

 

[Katynova]

Sometimes heat can cause lapse in production (orps aren't especially heat tolerant). Is it possible their hiding a nest? I see 3 accounted for but how many hens do you have total when you say "all"? Age and feed routine including treats and supplements? Have you checked skin condition (for parasites), especially on the sitting hens to seed if it'slight pink or angry red/scabby at all? Egg thieves like rats (and sometimes crows) can be crafty as well.

Those two sitting hens may sit themselves to death.. give them chicks, break them, or send them to a home that will please??

Hope this helps with some ideas or clues to look for.

First, I’m going to try to break them tomorrow via the crate method. End of June in Phoenix is 117-120 degrees.

The Orpington’s don’t seem to like the heat well at all. My silkies and jersey giants seem to do better, especially the silkies. I have 2 silkies, 4 orps (all a year and a half old) 3 jersey giants and one more buff that are all 4 months old. And 5 chicks various breeds 6 weeks old. I was too paranoid about something happening to the chicks to leave them under the broody hens. Now I need to break them for sure.
The sitting hens combs are pale but not in bad condition. I am very worried about them in the heat being broody. I force them out twice a day. I’ve tried dunking them and it didn’t work.

 

[nuthatched]

First, I’m going to try to break them tomorrow via the crate method. End of June in Phoenix is 117-120 degrees.

The Orpington’s don’t seem to like the heat well at all. My silkies and jersey giants seem to do better, especially the silkies. I have 2 silkies, 4 orps (all a year and a half old) 3 jersey giants and one more buff that are all 4 months old. And 5 chicks various breeds 6 weeks old. I was too paranoid about something happening to the chicks to leave them under the broody hens. Now I need to break them for sure.
The sitting hens combs are pale but not in bad condition. I am very worried about them in the heat being broody. I force them out twice a day. I’ve tried dunking them and it didn’t work.

Put them in wire dog kennels so air can hit them from all sides and then in some place cool.

 

[Katynova]

Sometimes heat can cause lapse in production (orps aren't especially heat tolerant). Is it possible their hiding a nest? I see 3 accounted for but how many hens do you have total when you say "all"? Age and feed routine including treats and supplements? Have you checked skin condition (for parasites), especially on the sitting hens to seed if it'slight pink or angry red/scabby at all? Egg thieves like rats (and sometimes crows) can be crafty as well.

Those two sitting hens may sit themselves to death.. give them chicks, break them, or send them to a home that will please??

Hope this helps with some ideas or clues to look for.

Feed is organic layer pellets for the older ones and the younger ones are all still on crumble. Dried mealworms every other day. Been giving them watermelon pretty often in the heat. That’s pretty much it. I don’t really give them “scraps” from my kitchen. They roam the backyard all day. I have a half acre lot.

 

[Katynova]

Put them in wire dog kennels so air can hit them from all sides and then in some place cool.

My garage is insulated. Do they need cooler than 98? I’d have to bring them inside if so.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Feed is organic layer pellets for the older ones and the younger ones are all still on crumble.

I would feed those sitting hens with the chick crumble also.. as the protein and amino acids will help them recover from that long term sitting and they don't need the excess calcium when not in lay (long term *can* actually cause gout, kidney failure, and death). They may even go into a molt before long, at least many of my excessively broody hens did do mini molts.

The crate method works. Usually even early on it takes at least 3 days. Sometimes the breaking time is relative to the sitting time.. the longer they sat the longer it takes to snap out of it. It's a hormonal change and one dunking (not my preferred method) won't do it.

That Phoenix heat sounds like hell and certainly won't do anything to help those ladies cool their body temperature to down regulate those broody hormones.

Away from the nest, NO bedding material that can be nested in.. if they sit and act comfortable then they aren't breaking.. they should be pacing and pissed essentially trying to get back to the nest. I would stress that doing this in a light place will help to break the mood usually.. BUT ONE huge caveat.. don't make it a bunch of light all of the sudden.. as I've had it contribute to egg binding in the past. I will note that one of my hens took 10 days in the crate before breaking.. that broke me and she found another home.

98 is still pretty warm.. I might dunk the ladies bellies in water (not cold) just to get wet and add a fan to help the evaporation cooling process.

I have broken 2 at the same time in the same crate.. and it can get ugly.. if breaking in separate crates is a possibility then I would suggest it.. noting I don't always use an ELEVATED crate.. any sort of locking away from the nest works.. I made a little covered chicken run on the yard for daytime and it works well. They still get crated off the ground at night.

I've seen rabbit keepers use frozen water jugs in front of their fans to help cool the animals. I never had to break a broody when I lived in heat like that and it rarely even reaches 70 where I am now. I don't know how that interplay's with the whole thing.

Mealworms are quite high fat. Fine as a treat, fed sparingly..

Please, if you aren't gonna trust them to raise chicks break them the minute they start showing signs next time.

Put them in wire dog kennels

I use these and highly recommend a solid covered top.. I've had two birds hang themselves.. when jumping (either startled, trying to break out, or flock antics not caused by raccoons) their head went all the way through the top but it didn't come back out before I found them deceased.

I suspect that horrid heat has something to do with your other lapses in laying. But to break it down more clearly you've got 6 laying age birds. 2 are broody, and you're getting 1 egg per day from the other 4 hens.. which are noted to be 1.5 year old Silkies and Orpingtons.. is that correct?

Orps and Silkies are only every other day layers in my experience by the time they get mature.. So at best I might expect 50% production and with the heat you describe 25% production doesn't actually seem too far off to me. That's just my opinion according to my experience but I'm always paying attention and my learning is ever evolving even after 10+ years and nearly 1000 birds.

Do you happen to be doing any of the cooling things people in those hot areas are to keep their birds more comfortable or have you looked at any of those threads? Misters, peas (carrots/corn etc) frozen into ice cubes (or solid bowls) to peck at.. you could even do that with your meal worm treats.

 

[Katynova]

One went broody and I gave her the jersey’s. It worked. But she went broody again shortly after the other one started.

I’ve only had chickens for one year as of May.

I did let them go for too long, now I know not to wait on them to stop. Thanks for all the help everyone! As always this is a great community for information!


And yes, we have misters in the yard, fans on the coop, ventilation, our yard gets irrigation which cools things off pretty well, we ice their water throughout the day and give them watermelon etc. that’s why I was looking for some assurance on the Orpington’s being on strike. But if only two that aren’t broody are producing an egg every couple of days it doesn’t sound too crazy to people with this heat.

I have dog crates.

They weren’t too happy with me today. “Mad as a wet hen”

I especially appreciated the advice about the crumble for the broody gals.

Thank you everyone!

 

[Katynova]

All of age non broody hens laid today!