I have one girl that molted in November last year. She stopped laying 11/1. It is now 6 1/2 months and not one egg! I expected this as I read up on what to expect when I first got into chickens. And my other easter egg girls started molting around December - February. Everyone has returned to laying except Tina. I have checked her for worms, mites, lice, prolapse, egg bound, illnesses. I cleaned out the coop top to bottom thinking it could be pests there. She is glossy, bright eyed, eats well and poops normally. She is in the middle of the pecking order, so she isn't picked on unless she tries to grab the last bite from the head chickens.
I change the waterer daily, I feed the same feed for everyone. It is 17% protein laying pellets. They were getting scratch in the coldest months, but now they only get it once a week or so and no more than 1/2 cup for 6 girls. I give them veggies in late afternoon every other day. Just enough they can eat in a few minutes. They are allowed in the yard to scratch around when it's good weather supervised after work hours. I tried removing all treats and only feeding layer with grit and oyster shell always provided. No change.
A little about this bird:
She had an injury in July of last year with her comb. Nearly half of it was hanging off and bleeding, so we dubbed it and she recovered quickly.
She would continue to lay after that but would stop when temperatures got above 80s. I figured it had something to do with not being able to regulate her body temp as well.
She is louder than the others. She alerts the girls to all problems that arise. Almost like a watch chicken.
She started squatting again mid March. I've seen her go into the nest box a few times last month but no egg resulted. She was practicing the egg song about 6 weeks ago.
Any idea what might be going on? Will she ever lay again?
I change the waterer daily, I feed the same feed for everyone. It is 17% protein laying pellets. They were getting scratch in the coldest months, but now they only get it once a week or so and no more than 1/2 cup for 6 girls. I give them veggies in late afternoon every other day. Just enough they can eat in a few minutes. They are allowed in the yard to scratch around when it's good weather supervised after work hours. I tried removing all treats and only feeding layer with grit and oyster shell always provided. No change.
A little about this bird:
She had an injury in July of last year with her comb. Nearly half of it was hanging off and bleeding, so we dubbed it and she recovered quickly.
She would continue to lay after that but would stop when temperatures got above 80s. I figured it had something to do with not being able to regulate her body temp as well.
She is louder than the others. She alerts the girls to all problems that arise. Almost like a watch chicken.
She started squatting again mid March. I've seen her go into the nest box a few times last month but no egg resulted. She was practicing the egg song about 6 weeks ago.
Any idea what might be going on? Will she ever lay again?