Speckled sussex seems to have stopped laying??

[ChickenMama79]

Hi all. This is my first post on here and we are pretty new to all this. We've got 6 hens we raised from 3 day old chicks. They are about 7 months old and lay fairly regularly. One of our SS girls seems to have stopped laying. The last egg I remember getting from her was in a weird spot- on the concrete patio near the back door, behind a box of kids' toys. That was almost 2 weeks ago. She seems fine otherwise. All the other girls are still laying fine (although the other SS was trying to go broody on me. We nipped that in the bud). I've checked all over the back yard and in any hidey hole I can think of. What could have made her stop? I'll try to attach a pic of her. Her toes are weird but they've always been that way. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[ChickenMama79]

Oh, and her name is BooBoo. My then 3 year old son named her that. Ha!

 

[ChickenMama79]

Any ideas?

 

[azygous]

Hens do sometimes take time out from laying. It's an individual thing. They each have their own rhythm. She's likely to get back to laying after she's had her rest.

But keep an eye one her. Watch her poops. Make sure they're like the others. If her poops aren't normal, if they become white or green or watery, then she likely has a problem. Watch her behavior also. Make sure she's not standing around holding her tail down. That would indicate she's in pain, and if she's in the nest box for extended periods without producing an egg, you can assume she's egg-bound.

Absent these symptoms, she's probably perfectly all right and is just taking a few weeks off.

 

[ChickenMama79]

Thank you!!! I'll watch her more closely. I suspect you are right- she's probably taking a break.

 

[ChickenMama79]

She laid an egg yesterday!! Everything is hopefully back to normal!!

 

[azygous]

Glad to hear she is back in action!