They just stopped laying

[CatCohen]

Back in December, my hens stopped laying. One of the hens is about 3, the other two are just over a year old. We are in Phoenix, AZ, so the days don't get that short, it doesn't get that cold. We did not change food or anything. We did get 3 Austrolorp pullets just before Christmas (2019). They should start laying in a month. We kept the flocks separate for about a month, then merged them. Everyone gets along.

I do know the older hens go into the pullets house and eat the grower feed. We are almost out of grower, which is fine. Again, the pullets should lay around end of March. (It is February 2020 as of this writing.)

Any idea why the hens stopped laying? Our first flock died around 3 years old. No reason, no disease that we could tell. One by one. The only other way we have lost the flock is by coyote attack...that's different, of course.

Any reason why our hens don't last and why they stopped laying after a year?

Same feed as always (except when they are eating the grower feed.)
They made it through a Phoenix summer, they should be fine.
No, we don't keep the lights on to increase production.

 

[gtaus]

I am going through my first Minnesota winter with 10 laying hens and they are actively laying. However, I have been told that I can expect them to go through a moult next fall and maybe not get many eggs in the second winter. This winter, I am averaging about 6 eggs per day.

Some chicken breeds have a short life expectancy of only 3-5 years, so if your flock started to die off at 3 years, that may not be too unusual. For that reason, I am already planning on getting new chicks every other year, and then maybe retiring the "older" hens after their second winter. If I find that my second year hens do not lay many eggs in that second winter, I may decided to buy replacement chicks every spring.

Also, if you told us the breeds of your chickens, you might get some more specific feedback as different breeds have different laying characteristics. I am no expert, but I can tell that my hybrid production hens are better layers than my dual purpose breeds. But I expected that from reading up on the various breeds I wanted to try this year.

Hope you start to get some eggs from your flock. I know my winter would be a lot longer and colder if I was not getting eggs from my girls.

 

[oldhen2345]

Back in December, my hens stopped laying. One of the hens is about 3, the other two are just over a year old. We are in Phoenix, AZ, so the days don't get that short, it doesn't get that cold. We did not change food or anything. We did get 3 Austrolorp pullets just before Christmas (2019). They should start laying in a month. We kept the flocks separate for about a month, then merged them. Everyone gets along.

I do know the older hens go into the pullets house and eat the grower feed. We are almost out of grower, which is fine. Again, the pullets should lay around end of March. (It is February 2020 as of this writing.)

Any idea why the hens stopped laying? Our first flock died around 3 years old. No reason, no disease that we could tell. One by one. The only other way we have lost the flock is by coyote attack...that's different, of course.

Any reason why our hens don't last and why they stopped laying after a year?

Same feed as always (except when they are eating the grower feed.)
They made it through a Phoenix summer, they should be fine.
No, we don't keep the lights on to increase production.

Maybe they are short lived chickens- what breed? AS for the grower feed, I had the same issue with hens eating the pullet feed. I started my flock on All Flock and added oyster shell as free choice for the hens. Now that everyone is on the same page, I switched to layer feed for all. As of now, I get 3 eggs a day for 5 chickens. One is older, one is just at point of lay, so I guess the numbers are where they should be.

 

[CatCohen]

The breeds are Rhode Island Red (she is the second oldest at 3. Our oldest is unknown, re-homed to us 2 years ago, Easter Egger, gave us a few blue eggs, then stopped. The two younger are a jersey giant (although I think that's wrong. She is not that big) and I forgot the other. She is blond, small, lays white eggs, and hates everyone and every thing!

 

[aart]

We are in Phoenix, AZ, so the days don't get that short,

10 hours at winter solstice, 11 hours today.
So still might be early for them to come back into lay.
Older birds may take a longer winter break.

The EE hasn't laid in almost 2 years?
She could have a reproductive issue that made her sterile.

Do you know how old the pullets are, in months?
Do you free range?

Here's some tips about how to tell....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/