Where did her eggs go?

[RcknSAHM]

I bought an 11 month old hen about 5/6 weeks ago so by now shes 1. When I got her she laid me large eggs everyday! In the past week the eggs have gotten smaller and smaller then today, NO egg at all. Will this change? What happened? I feed a pan of food with mostly layer mash and a little bit of scratch. She goes NUTS for the scratch, could she be just not eating enough of the layer? Any advice is great. Thanks!!!

 

[MustLoveHens]

Oh I hate to tell you this, but I'd bet that she was older then what you were told. That is very common for a hen to lay smaller eggs as her lay cycle nears it's end. Usually a hen becomes "egg bound" and passes away. But some hens will survive the "the change" and they proceed to live a happy non productive life mooching off of you. Most of my hens survived the change so I personally think surviving from becoming egg bound is more common then not, but having an old hen potentially become egg bound is a possibility that you need to expect. There is not much you can do once a hen is egg bound. If you have small fingers, you can try to lube the egg to coax it out, but if that egg breaks in the hens "tract" then it's over. She gets very sick and dies. That is also what happens to a hen that becomes egg bound who cannot pass the egg and why she dies.

If she was not laying smaller eggs, then I'd say stress might be the reason why she has stopped laying. Stressed hens won't lay. Dogs, kids, preditors, a busy road, a new roo or a dominant chicken/s in the flock, these can all be stressers that will cause a hen to stop laying.

 

[YYZ]

Chicken raising has it's up's and downs.