Why has my Warren stopped laying?

[jan64]

I had one Warren prior to getting another 3 younger Warren's, and she has been very erratic with egg production, she went from laying one or two normal eggs here and there, to very small eggs with no yolks, then lastly she laid a very tiny egg (perfectly formed but the size of a thumbnail) about 3 weeks ago, and absolutely nothing since? I was worried that I've been doing something wrong - but she seems perfectly healthy, very alert, and as friendly as ever so I don't know what this egg situation is all about with her???

 

[Den in Penn]

It sounds like she is shutting down production, either because of age or going into molt. Its early for molt in the northern hemisphere and the multitude of problems make seem to me to be a shut down for age.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

2x

 

[jan64]

I'm beginning to think so too - the guy we bought her from assured us she would 'resume' laying, but was 'just going into moult'? - he told us she was a year old, and that he was only getting rid of the bulk of his flock because of local authority regulations - at the time we didn't have any reason to disbelieve him and bought them all the same, one of them died not long after we brought them home, and the one we have left...Doris, is an absolute darling, follows me around the garden and pokes her inquisitive beak into whatever I'm doing - even jumps up on my knee to share a piece of my cake....but apart from laying TWO edible eggs 3 weeks after bringing her home, and then the yolkless small ones, and the final miniature egg, she's really done nothing at all to earn her keep - and I do think now that she's much older than we were told.....I would never get rid of her though, I adore her - and I'm looking forward to my 3 new Warrens becoming just as adorable ( and hopefully more productive than Doris) !!

 

[FarmGirlForLife]

One thing you can do to kind of tell age is look at the vent. A hen in her prime will have a healthy looking wet, pink vent. Older hens will have a drier, white colored vent and it will be very saggy looking