She stopped laying!

[pinktoes1218]

I have a 6 month old Rhode Island Red. While we were finishing the chicken coop she lived happily in the chicken run with a tarp covering part of it for protection.

Now that we finished the coop, she has stopped laying eggs. its been over 2 weeks now without an egg. Her same nest box is inside the coop, but I never see evidence that she is in it.

She free-ranges in the evening and on the weekends, and had a nest in the yard, but she is not laying there either.

It seems that the addition of the coop we spent so much time on has thrown her off. Does anybody know if she will start laying again?

 

[chickaddict]

I could be that she has another nest somewhere in the backyard. I freerange 9 girls in a fenced in yard. Most of the time they lay in the coop, but I have found the occasional stray egg in some pretty strange places.

I keep rolled up wire in the shed, one of my girls would lay her eggs inside the wire coil. Once I found an egg in the dust bath. A friend of mine who also freeranges never knows where the nest will be as they move it every few days.

I have only had chickens for a year and a half and I don't think they lay if they are molting.

I hope someone who has more of a clue than I do will respond to your post. These are my guesses.

 

[lindabean]

I don't know where you live, but down here in Central South TX my chickens started molting about 3 weeks ago and 2 of the 3 that were laying, stopped. They had endured incredibly hot days & no rain (although their coop is almost always in the shade & I gave them big saucers of water to wade in) and still they laid about 4 eggs a week, each. Now just 4 eggs a week, period. All I can come up with is Molting. Lots of feathers of all sizes in the coop. I finally got a brown egg yesterday - first one in 3 weeks, and it may be a first egg from my RIR that is due to start laying any day. The babies are just 16 weeks + a few days, so I'm not holding my breath for eggs from them till Thanksgiving (I hope!). If you come up with a good egg laying prayer, please share.