welsummer stopped laying 3 weeks ago

[eric71m]

Hi there, I have a small flock of 11 chicks and 1 turkey that I added a couple of full grown hens too about 3 months ago. Both full grown hens were laying eggs very regularly, then about 3 weeks ago my Welsummer stopped laying eggs. I've checked for a stuck egg, checked her to see if shes molting (no signs that I recognize), no changes to the flock, there was a short spell when the flock went on an eating fury, and emptied the feeder inside of 12 hours, (problem fixed bigger feeder 2 weeks ago), and they are all on layers pellets, with supplements of oyster and corn scratch, there was a few days of a hot spell and drank all of their water inside of 12 hours (problem fixed, water set up to garden hose to auto fill) but all that was over two weeks ago, and shes still not laying. Yes I checked the yard, no signs of laying out side of the hen house. They pretty much free range, they have so much area for the 14 chickens, over a 100 x 200 sf yard with various shrubs for shade and shelter. The hen house has 4 different layered roosting areas, and 18 nesting boxes, plenty of ventilation.
Any help would be great.
Eric

 

[aart]

Lock em up in the coop for 2-3 days so 're-train' them to use the coop nests.
I have read that running out of water, even once, can put them off laying for quite some time.

Layer feed is minimum protein levels.....feeding scratch can lower that protein significantly.



I like to feed a 'flock raiser' 20% protein crumble to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and all molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided during molting and if I see any feather eating.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer.

 

[eric71m]

So she started laying again yesterday... yesterdays egg was rather small... and had about a 3/16" hole in the end...
Todays egg was much larger (almost normal size for her) but yet still had a hole in the end... the shells are not soft by any means, much thicker than my other girls shells.
Any Ideas?