Stress and your chickens

[firerunner]

This was my chicken coop after hurricane Irma, not sure if you can tell but you are see a reflection on the water. The water was over 5 feet in the coop. When Irma hit we did not expected to be flooded and my chickens were safe and sound (so we thought ) in the coop. Imagine our surprise the next morning to find..that.



The above is a view from my florida room to my coop, 3 days after Irma.



Not sure if you can tell but this is about 4 days after Irma, you are seeing a reflection on the water, when this was taken the water was actually to the red wood trim , middle of pic (about 3 to 4 feet high)



The above was about 10 days after Irma.

So the reason I am showing you, is when we got up and seen the devastation, we immediately got the boat out, went to the coop and rescued our 25 chickens, one peep drowned.

For whatever reason, not a single drop of water got in our house so all 25 chickens ended up in the florida room (we divided the room up since we have two roosters and two coops) and they stayed there for about 10 days.



When we had a high, dry place we built a make shift coop and moved the chickens outside to the makeshift coop....they hated it.

And finally about a month after the hurricane we were able to fix their home, fresh dirt, fresh peat moss, and move the chickens back in

And here we are...nov 9 and not a single egg

not one...


nothing..

everyone looks healthy, nice clear eyes, nice pink combs, no bumble foot, no diarrhea, eating and drinking fine....i even took a couple of poop samples into the vet to make sure we had no worms...all clear. I took Nugget in (one of our roosters) to have his beak and spur trimmed and the vet checked him all over for bugs etc..all clear.

So could stress do this? The flood, the house, the move to the makeshift coop etc?

If so how long, i miss my eggs!!!

If not..then suggestions?

 

[feather13]

Oh--I'm so sorry about all that damage to your coop (although so happy your house wasn't affected). I don't have any solid advice on why the hens aren't laying, but I imagine living through a hurricane was incredibly stressful. I hope things calm down for them and they start laying again. They might just need more time. Good luck!

 

[JeanR]

You bet they were STRESSED--maybe as much as you were, but they could not understand. Any move or change of housing can stop laying. Even cleaning the pens and new bedding can affect some of the hens How wonderful that they were safe in their pens! AND THAT YOUR HOUSE WAS SPARED! This will be like a full molt. And they may all molt before recovery and laying eggs again. And this may be gradual. Some hens will recover before others. When a Grizzly Bear sow and her 2 cubs broke into one of my poultry houses and killed and ate 26 of my best birds, only one hen survived, under the rubble of the interior trashed in the house. Moved to one of the other houses, she did not lay for about 4 months, and although she settled into her new pen, none of her eggs were fertile. She was a special hen, and I did not have a daughter to continue her line. So have patience, feed them well and when they are settled for sure, there will be eggs again.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

You have to remember, there are people that are still traumatized by that weather event.

On top of the hurricane, the chickens had to deal with the flooding, then, displacement and inturuption of their daily routines, not to mention the pecking order disruption, and then finally relocation back to their home.

Yes, they are incredibly stressed. Animals suffer from PTSD, just like people. However, they are more resilient. Nature has provided them with the ability to adapt and re-adapt to adversity. Their first reaction is to conserve vital physical energy to ensure survival. That's one reason their are no eggs right now.

How can you help them feel secure again? There are a couple of things you can do.

1. Make sure there is an abundance of food. Daily feed, and extra goodies, fruit, fresh greens, bread with butter, meat protein, fresh corn of the cob, etc. Do this a few times a week.

2. Music...that's right, music. But not just any music, something soft and soothing. When my hens stopped laying suddenly after a bobcat attack. After a month, I knew something in their environment had to change, in order to get them back to feeling secure. New security measures were not enough. Then, I came upon a scientific article about music and animals. Cows produced more milk when listening to calming music. They found that birds have similar reactions to music, as humans do. They are happy when they hear music they like.

My chickens have a varying selection of music: Country Classics, Spanish Guitar Ballads, Elevator instrumentals, Floyd Cramer Piano classics, Burt Bacharach, Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, and so on. They listen to their music from 9 a.m. to about 5 p.m., about 4 days a week. More in the Summer, as the days are longer.

I had to do some research on music, because I wasn't one of those people who routinely buys music. I'm more of a "whatever's on the radio type person". So, I bought a wireless speaker on Amazon, and with a free Android Tablet, that came with a phone, my chickens had their own..."Chicken Radio"!

I'd set up my lawn chair, and sit out with them for a couple of hours to observe. I really have come to enjoy listening to the music too. And, the chickens started laying about two weeks later. I also think my presence gives them more peace and a feeling of security.

Hope this is helpful to you, if nothing else, maybe a laugh.
My husband is still shaking his head at me. But, hey...we got eggs, and happy chickens too!

God Bless you and your flock!

 

[firerunner]

Thanks for the suggestions! I was hoping it was stress, I know for my husband and I, it wasn't until hmm about two weeks ago that we felt somewhat normal (and we still have repairs to do to our fish house and privacy fencing) We had to cut and remove 6 BIG trees (none hit the house or our coop and a small piece put a hole in the fish house) and we JUST finished fixing the drive (it was washed out by the flooding we had to use a boat for weeks. So yes very stressful

I will continue to love and spoil them and hope we get eggs soon

 

[sourland]

Sorry for what you had to deal with, but glad that it was not worse. Chickens hate change. The change in their environment plus shortening day length and perhaps a molt all may be impacting them. They will lay again - when depends upon their age and the breeds involved. Don't give up on them.