Why Aren't My Chickens Laying? Here Are Your Answers!

[ALRwild]

Two chickens in my flock were recently killed by a fox, and since then, my other chickens have stopped laying. I'm thinking it is stress related because of that, but I can't seem to de stress them. I have five chicks ordered to add to my small, now smaller, flock in an attempt to get more eggs. I even tried changing their diets, but it didn't seem to help. Any ideas?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I am sorry for your loss. The only thing I can think of that will help your hens is to feed them locally produced fox meat. a.k.a. remove the thing or things causing stress to your chickens.

As someone earlier said, "Commercial flocks don't deal with this type of stress."

I say, "That is also why people once hunted foxes pretty much year round, and why every farmer was glad for school boys to trap their land, for in this manner the lives of many chickens were spared, and much sleep that could be lost by sitting up nights watching the hen coop was saved."

 

[Rachel96]

I've noticed that a lot of people say that hens lay well in summer but stop in winter. For me, I've noticed the opposite - my hens tend to lay all through winter but slow down or even stop in late December, January, February, and sometimes March and April, too. Which seems like a lot, but it's not all the time then.

When it gets hot, my chooks stop laying (I'm in Australia, so December-February is summer here). If there's a heat wave they'll often stop laying for the duration of the heat wave, and I always get fewer eggs on hotter days. It's only during very long, very hot heat waves that they stop completely - I few years ago we had two weeks of over 45 every day, and about a month of over 40. I didn't get any eggs at all during that time.

There's really no way to prevent this that I know of - you can't stop the weather! A lot of hens die during this time, too, so it's better to try to prevent that. I 'water' the hens several times a day (set the hose on 'mist' and water them like plants), and make sure they have plenty of fresh water and shade.

 

[SHRIVERFARMGIRL]

I have 30 new this spring Braham hens and they are now 39 weeks old and only have just got our first egg. Think only one is laying every now and then. Bought some full grown hen a few years ago and they layed regularly but have now stopped (age Im guessing) but these new hens I am really beginning to wonder about the hatcherys integrity. (Started with the fact we bought and paid a premium for the pullets only) and come to find out we got about 3-4 roos outta the bunch and now this. Is it possible to have a bad batch of hens that wont lay? Our chicken field is not huge and is fenced in and we have checked it for eggs out there....none so far. We are extra light for them with winter here, too. Wonder about cramped space in the coop at night, if they could be stressing them?

Any ideas?

 

[Cass]

I have 30 new this spring Braham hens and they are now 39 weeks old and only have just got our first egg. Think only one is laying every now and then. Bought some full grown hen a few years ago and they layed regularly but have now stopped (age Im guessing) but these new hens I am really beginning to wonder about the hatcherys integrity. (Started with the fact we bought and paid a premium for the pullets only) and come to find out we got about 3-4 roos outta the bunch and now this. Is it possible to have a bad batch of hens that wont lay? Our chicken field is not huge and is fenced in and we have checked it for eggs out there....none so far. We are extra light for them with winter here, too. Wonder about cramped space in the coop at night, if they could be stressing them?

Any ideas?

Only one. Wait. They are only 7 months old and the Braham is a big bird, so they take longer to mature. IF they are not laying by the end of April, then eat them and get some local hens from stock proven to lay. There is little to no possiblity that these hens won't lay. That's what hens do, lay eggs. There are reports of hens taking up to a full year to lay their first egg. (Breeds I would never own, but hey, to each their own)

How much light are you adding? Is it enough to make the "daylight" your chickens are exposed to equal to or greater than 12 hours? When did you start supplimenting light? Was it longer than 2 weeks ago? (It took my birds 2 weeks for their bodies to catch up with the fact I had added more daylight to their life) Is the light added only in the morning, so the birds go to roost with the normal decline of daylight in the evening? (My lights have to come on at 2 am to do that. I hate how my house is located under a mountain. grr)

Are they eating quality layer feed? Do they have fresh unfrozen water available consistantly? Are you giving them too many treats? (If I feed mine bread, they don't lay the next day...wonderful trick when I have way to many eggs in the fridge. LOL) Other people find that their birds decrease laying because of different treats. I stopped giving my birds ANY treats for 2 weeks (and cried when I threw out good food they could have eatten) They started laying again and then I started adding treats one at a time to find out what was messing with their system that stopped them from laying. Turns out it was bread, in the case of my flock, and here I was feeding them the heel of each loaf and the crusts from my sandwich daily. Ack. Well, live and learn, as they say. Old chicken farmer (well, she wasn't that old, but had had chickens for 20 years) told me that chickens can live and thrive on just plain good commercial layer. (and they will lay eggs too. LOL) They don't need treats of any kind, that's something backyard farmers do cuz it make the farmer feel good.

Once you have figured out all of that, it will be April and they will start laying. And you will think you have found the problem and solved it. In reality, it will have just been the passing of time that started their laying cycles.

(PS are you finding any evidence of egg eating?)

 

[chicken123456]

coocoo

 

[BlessedTxMama]

Thank you so much...I was just about to ask this question!! I have 8 Plymouth Rock hens that we got in May 2012 at 3 weeks old and 4 girls *STILL* aren't laying. :/ They're healthy, get feed (egg laying crumbles)/veggies and fruit/and forage for insects. I just don't know...

 

[SHRIVERFARMGIRL]

Great questions, but unfortunately none of them added up. We give them very little treats, defiantly not consistently.

We have raised Brahmas from chicks before and it didn't take them this long (only difference is, we paid more this time and got them from the local feed mill in the spring because none of the Farm stores in a 40 mile radius weren't getting any of the Light Brahmas in.) I even took into consideration they were a bigger bird but past history still showed it has never taken this long.

We did change our food for them (to a better higher quality feed) thinking that would help...but still nothing. The light was added about a month ago to them getting about 14 hours of light both in the morning and in the evening total.

No egg eating is present, and I have my son check the field ever so often to see that they aren't being bone heads and laying in the field. Still no signs.

The only thing I can possible come up with at this pint in time, is that they are stressed because too many in the coop. I have gone out and have 9 picked to be processed next week. Several roosters (that were to be high priced pullets) and several older hens that we know haven't been laying much up to the end when everything stopped months ago even before the cold arrived.

They are stressing me! Money going out to feed them and what good are they doing me? Making me crazy!!!

Thinking Chicken and Noodles when I look upon my flock these days...Aggg!

 

[SHRIVERFARMGIRL]

chicken 123456: ???

 

[Cass]

Thank you so much...I was just about to ask this question!! I have 8 Plymouth Rock hens that we got in May 2012 at 3 weeks old and 4 girls *STILL* aren't laying. :/ They're healthy, get feed (egg laying crumbles)/veggies and fruit/and forage for insects. I just don't know...

Might be the fruit/treats you are giving them. Some people say that excess fruit (and they don't define "excess") stalls egg laying. If these were my birds, I would stop giving them treats altogether and let them eat just good quality layer feed for a few weeks. I would hope that they would start laying. If they don't, I would eat them and start fresh with new birds in the spring. (I like to eat chicken. LOL)

But I wonder how you know these 4 aren't laying? Only a few breeds of birds lay an egg every single day, so it is possible that all birds are laying, just not every bird every day. How many eggs are you getting daily? (there is a way to tell if they have laid an egg which involves fingers laid between the pelvic bones, but I don't know exactly how it is determined if they are laying using this method. It also involves catching the chicken, not my idea of a good time)

My solution to all these 'why aren't they laying' questions is "wait til spring". If they don't start in the spring, eat them and get new birds from a local hens with a proven laying record.