I built a larger coop almost two months ago so my six girls coud spread out a bit. They seem to have all adapted pretty well. They have all been laying pretty consistant except one. She ( red sex link) looks healthy eats well interact with the others but hasnt layed an egg in over two months. I take that back. She layed one egg about a month ago and the shell was really thin ang a much lighter brown than normal. I thought it was kinda funny when she layed that egg because her best bud was sitting next to her in the nesting box. It was almost like she was helping her. Nothing since then. I have noticed what seem to be just busted yolks in the nesting box several times. I know it's cold here in PA and I have a 250w heat lamp that runs from 4pm-12am and from 4am to 7am. The food is the same Layina pellets. Will she ever lay again??
Did she start to molt ? between a molt and the cold weather, that could be part of the problem. Their bodies take a natural break during the winter and they won't lay as much unless you keep a light on in the coop to simulate longer daylight hours. Otherwise, not sure what could be doing it. Normally just stress/molt/winter from my experience anyway. Are you sure she's not laying ? Maybe the colder weather less daylight has them all laying a bit less so you're just not getting as many as over the summer ? Maybe you have an egg eater - I've got one and if I don't get the eggs everyday, they'll eat a few of them. DOn't know which one, though - or it could be all of them. Who knows. If she's healthy - not much else you can do.
I didnt even think about the molting. I think she did. So that means what? When will she stary laying? As you can tell, Im new to chickens but I love those crazy girls. Thank so much!
They do not lay when they are molting. It takes all their energy to regrow the feathers. You can increase protein to help get them through it quicker, either with a higher protein feed, cat food, fish, tuna, meat scraps, Black Oil Sunflower seeds, etc.
