Why won't my girls lay???

[ChickenPrnces]

I have a semi-heated barn, lights on from 6:30am until 11:00pm, feed egg layer plus feed with cracked corn and oyster shells! My NH and RI were laying well and just quit one day! They are 1yr and 7mo respectively! My other girls should have started in October/November and not a single egg! What is ging on here???????

 

[SassyKat6181]

Have you looked around the barn to make sure they aren't hiding them somewhere? Chickens can be sneaky.

 

[ChickenPrnces]

Yeah we've searched under all their hay on the floor and in the boxes! They are chicken wired into one half of the barn so they can't be using rafters! They range during the day and we have looked everywhere and found nothing! I finally got one random egg tonight after nothing for over a month! I just don't get it!

 

[bairo]

It is just timing for them. It got cold, time for them to molt, shorter days, and it is their 1st winter, all hit at the same time. Heating your coop is a different discussion

You shouldnt really exceed 12 hours total of light or it really screws with their system. Artificial light already manipulates their natural system as it is. For example mine come on an hour before sunrise and again on for an hour after sunset. You can also try full spectrum light like a grow light.

Worm them. There is a very high chance that they need worming, especially if they have never been in the past.

 

[ponyboy1995]

Is there a way snakes could be getting into the barn? The same thing happened to my brother in law. He finally hooked up a video camera and found that a snake was robbing his eggs. The reason he decided to set the video camera out was because he put golf balls in the nesting boxes to try to get the hens to lay after a couple of weeks of no eggs. One afternoon he noticed the golf ball was gone. The next day the golf ball was back in the box. So he thought someone was stealing his eggs. Turned out to be a snake. Not sure how or why the snake put the golf ball back, but he got rid of the snake and has eggs now.

 

[ChickenPrnces]

OK! I'm gonna cut down the light time! I had a baby that was given to me that had worms which freaked me out even though the baby had never been near my big coop! So I wormed them all! Even my piggie! If they had bad worms should it be done more than once to get them gone? I did it about a month ago! I got all my birds from a bunch of different sources to start a flock so they may have had them pretty bad or not at all! What do you suggest????

 

[ChickenPrnces]

Hey Ponyboy! Not sue where you are from but do we actually have to worry about snakes in N.H.??? I'm gonna freak if we do! Did NOT see that coming!!!!

 

[ChickenPrnces]

And could a snake be eating that many eggs??? I have 20 birds! 17 of them hens! That's a lot of eggs! (AT LEAST IT SHOULD BE)

 

[bairo]

Yes you needed to repeat the worming in 10-15 days to be effective. Take a look at my BYC page, I am in the middle of putting some info in about worming and dosing, etc. You might want to start over now. Your hens are what we would refer to as high risk because they came from several different sources. Not that you cant do that, its how many of us started out....just that it takes a bit more work sometimes to make sure one has not brought something to the others.

And the above poster is correct about animals stealing eggs. Snakes, raccoon's, opossums, and large rats are very eager to get their little paws on those eggs. So def. check the security of the coop.

 

[luvchicks8]

I dont have an answer but I am in the same boat, 12 hens NO eggs in about 6 months I may have got 4-6 eggs total.