What Happened?? They Stopped Laying!

[Picky Chicky]

At first I thought my girls were going through a molt - and I think they did, but it's been months now and I'm getting maybe 1 egg a day from two different birds - and I have 9 girls that are known to lay.

The only other thought I had is - could it be my rooster? Is he stressing my girls out and now they refuse to lay?

I've checked for critters, pests, and they're clean. I'm out of ideas.

 

[Kittymomma]

Are they in a coop/run full time or do you free range? My first thought is that they're hiding a nest(s) somewhere. It's contagious too. I had one girl decide to lay in the barn instead of their boxes (they have 12 nice cozy ones) and pretty soon a bunch of them were laying in there.

Maybe your roo, but I really don't know. If he's after them constantly you could try moving him out for awhile and see if it helps....

 

[Picky Chicky]

Quote:
Right now they're 100% coop/run. They don't get too much time to free range as I only let them do it when I'm home on the weekends. They have tons of space in the coop and tons of nest boxes (the two girls that are still laying are pretty consistent about laying in the boxes).

I'm starting to suspect the roo... offered him to a neighbor down the road and they said they'd take him off my hands if I wanted. I just hate to get rid of a perfectly good roo if it's not him causing the stunt in egglaying.

This stinks.

 

[Kittymomma]

I did have another thought, but it's not a good one either. One or more of your hens may have started eating eggs. They do a pretty good job of it and usually don't leave any evidence so it's hard to tell. If that's the case the only two ways I know of to deal with it are to cull the culprit(s) or to start using roll back (I think that's what they're called) nest boxes so that they can't get to the eggs after they lay them.