One egg then no more, why?

[malkered]

This is Arrietta in the foreground.

I rescued her from a tenant in one of our houses who kept her in a tiny makeshift hut with 40 quail. She was reasonably well fed but never saw the light of day and was covered in quail s**t.

I have no idea how old she is but I suspect she is several months old.

I have no real idea what breed she is.

We initially housed her in a hurriedly converted 6'x3' shed with an added 7'x2.5' run.

She laid one egg the day after we got her and no more. She seemed active and happy but, no more eggs.

We weren't happy with her living arrangements so moved her into a converted 8'x6' shed with a 45 square foot outside enclosure with perches, mirrors and 2 nesting areas.

We got her some company in a 17 week old Amber Hybrid, Bess, and the two got on well.

No eggs.

She's still happy and active, eating well and she's now lovely and clean.

No eggs.

We added two 18 month old, ex egg factory hens who stayed in lay.

Bess started laying at 21 weeks.

Arrietta - no eggs.

She has been losing feathers gradually and seems fine in every other way.

I'm not worried about not getting an egg from her as we are getting 3 a day but i would like to understand why she isn't laying and whether I should be worried about her.

Any ideas?

 

[junebuggena]

Constantly moving her around, then adding new chickens, and then adding more new chickens all make for a stressed out hen. Give her some time. Some chickens just get stressed more easily than others.

 

[malkered]

Yeah, I understand that, I was new to chicken keeping until I rescued Arrietta and only did so to try to improve her existence. I've only moved her once since we've had her and only into a better environment. I added Bess to give her some company which went well.

The other two hens were due to be slaughtered along with the rest of their 14000 strong flock so I had to save them.

As long as she is well, happy and safe I'm not worried about the eggs.

 

[junebuggena]

A move is still stress, even if it is for the better. Like I said, some are just more sensitive to stress than others and take longer to adjust. Give her some time and she will start laying.

 

[aart]

Any move and adding other chickens is all stressful.

"I have no idea how old she is but I suspect she is several months old."
Chicken don't even lay until they are about 6 months old, she could be several years old and at the end or has decreased her laying.


"She has been losing feathers gradually"
She may be molting, either because it's time for her or because of stress, that will stop the eggs too.

 

[malkered]

I have since found out that she is around 9 months old. She's still losing a fair few feathers and she's still not laying. However, she's eating and drinking ok and seems very well so I'm not too worried.