When will she lay again?

[cheekydog]

One of my poor girls was attacked by a fox well before Christmas. She lost a lot of neck feathers and then had to put up with new hens as friends because her original mates had been killed. She used to lay every day without fail. I know she has had a trauma and a lot of change but what are people's experiences of time it takes to start laying again as it must have been over 6 weeks now?

Also I'm moving house and losing my lovely huge country garden to a small town garden (but am buying so that's all good). This is going to significantly reduce my three girls' space . What kind of set ups do people have for small town garden chickens? Thanks, Clare.

 

[TwoCrows]

I can't help you with the smaller spaces issue. But as for your girl that was attacked by a fox. It is possible that the trauma took it's toll for a spell on her and now that the low light of winter has set in, she is just taking a break from laying. If she is older than 1 1/2 years, she may be going thru a molt, which will clamp off the eggs. As long as she was not injured too badly, I would imagine she will start laying soon, if not in a month or so when the day light starts to return.

Good luck with your hen.

 

[cheekydog]

Yay she started laying again and true to form had gone right back to daily laying.

Strangely one of our others who had just got over a moult and had started laying has now stopped? The third is not laying due to moulting.

Has the hen who started laying again 'put off' the one who had just started up before her???