Stopped laying... Ugh

[Murdy]

I doubt it. My girls never even seem to notice when one is no longer around (natural or predator death).

It is reasonable to expect the quantity of eggs to go down if you get rid of 3 layers. In your case up to 3 eggs a day

Although you don't know me in order to know that I'm smart enough to realized this... I've already compensayed for the Icelandics not being here anymore. I recognized each of their individual eggs... The remaining girls have allowed to a halt.

Hopefully it's as simple as heat and diet. Diet has been adjusted. Heat.... I'm at the mercy of the gods.

 

[Murdy]

Adding or removing flock members( hens or roosters )resets the pecking order and causes stress .It can halt egg production.

Too bad I didn't keep track in order to really know rather than just ponder whether that was the start of the decline.

 

[Murdy]

Although you don't know me in order to know that I'm smart enough to realized this... I've already compensayed for the Icelandics not being here anymore. I recognized each of their individual eggs... The remaining girls have allowed to a halt.

Hopefully it's as simple as heat and diet. Diet has been adjusted. Heat.... I'm at the mercy of the gods.

Oh the irony of several typos and spelling mistakes in a post where I'm claiming to be semi-intelligent.

Hahaha!

 

[NatJ]

Oh the irony of several typos and spelling mistakes in a post where I'm claiming to be semi-intelligent.

You can go back and edit your post, if you want to fix the errors. Just look for an "edit" button at the bottom of it. (The post can only be edited for a certain amount of time-- I think 24 hours-- if you have the free kind of account. I really hate it when I notice my own errors right after it's too late to fix them!)

 

[NatJ]

Although you don't know me in order to know that I'm smart enough to realized this... I've already compensayed for the Icelandics not being here anymore. I recognized each of their individual eggs... The remaining girls have allowed to a halt.

Not everyone can recognize their chickens' individual eggs, so I had wondered the same thing-- whether you had inavertently gotten rid of the best layers, and were just noticing how badly the others had been laying all along.

Since you can tell who laid which egg, that is obviously not the case.

 

[Murdy]

You can go back and edit your post, if you want to fix the errors. Just look for an "edit" button at the bottom of it. (The post can only be edited for a certain amount of time-- I think 24 hours-- if you have the free kind of account. I really hate it when I notice my own errors right after it's too late to fix them!)

It's more fun this way.

 

[maroongrad]

Our flock has 7 laying hens and three of them are on break right now. It has been hot here, although not to the point that the West Coast went through, and they're eating less feed and more forage, hanging out in the shade, moving less, drinking more...and the leghorn, ayam cemani, and one of the Easter Eggers has called it quits on laying for the last few weeks. Laying stopped about a week after it got really hot. They're otherwise healthy and no one is due to molt any time soon; they went through a molt just a few months ago.
Your flock is small. If they are the same or related breeds, it may well just be that your breed stops laying when it gets too hot out. If it's a mix of breeds and others in your area aren't seeing their hens stop laying, then it's time to worry. How are your egg shells (thick, thin, smooth, creased?) and what's your usual lay rate? A rate of only two or three eggs a week or poor shells may indicate that it's a nutritional issue. I'm betting on the heat myself.

 

[MaGlockner]

I'm so glad to read this thread. My girls were a year old in May and my Easter Egger hasn't given me an egg in several days. We went from a miserable heat wave to rain/thunderstorms and a seesaw in temps back and forth as much as 25 degrees in 7-10 days. It's been overcast now for 6 days, and torrentially rained for three straight. The run is a muddy disgusting mess. I've just received a truckload of wood chips from a tree service and put a 2-3 inch layer in the worst areas of the run. Wondering myself if the weather, the excessive thunder storms ( 2 - 3 a day) and rain has all combined to slow things down/scare her a little? She is eating, looks the same as always and is in with the in crowd, so I can't see anything visible to cause this. I thought at just 14 months she's too young to molt, but maybe not? BTW she was one of the first to explore the wood chips, so whatever it is, it hasn't affected her curiosity.

 

[Murdy]

Our flock has 7 laying hens and three of them are on break right now. It has been hot here, although not to the point that the West Coast went through, and they're eating less feed and more forage, hanging out in the shade, moving less, drinking more...and the leghorn, ayam cemani, and one of the Easter Eggers has called it quits on laying for the last few weeks. Laying stopped about a week after it got really hot. They're otherwise healthy and no one is due to molt any time soon; they went through a molt just a few months ago.
Your flock is small. If they are the same or related breeds, it may well just be that your breed stops laying when it gets too hot out. If it's a mix of breeds and others in your area aren't seeing their hens stop laying, then it's time to worry. How are your egg shells (thick, thin, smooth, creased?) and what's your usual lay rate? A rate of only two or three eggs a week or poor shells may indicate that it's a nutritional issue. I'm betting on the heat myself.

The few eggs that have come over the last week or so have appeared to be normal. Nice shells, good size. No issue there... We're just down to very minimal laying from 2 or 3 of the 5 hens. I'm not sure when the last time I saw an egg from my orpington or white chantecler.

 

[NatJ]

I'm not sure when the last time I saw an egg from my orpington or white chantecler.

They're not broody, are they?