y are my hens not laying

[chickenjoe12]

hi my brahmas sablepoot polish and polish mix hen arent laying they just finished molting and hoped for some eggs by now they always have food and water and they have 4 nesting boxs whith they can all fit in and i should find 10 eggs but only 3 help

 

[theoldchick]

Diet? Age? After molting some hens will take a month or two to get back into production. If they are older hens they may take even longer to get back in gear. If you want to push them back into production you can increase the daylight hours artificially.

 

[chickenjoe12]

They arent to old but I surrpose they arent laying hens

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

How old are they? You say they just finished molting - so if they are 18+ months of age and this was a "big molt" (first generally happens at about 1 1/2 and then annually from there throughout their life) it is not at all uncommon for them not to return to laying afterwards as they tend to molt in the fall and then the expected return to laying would coincide with the onset of the shorter days. Without sufficient hours of daylight to re-trigger production once molt is over the hens body takes a natural break from producing eggs. One way to try to overcome this natural cycle in their production is to use supplemental lighting to make up for the shorter hours of natural daylight the birds get in winter.

 

[RoosterCogburn7]

Don't feel bad, I got my girls in late June, and not a single egg yet. I anticipate they will by Spring. I just go them as chicks during the wrong month to have it work out this year is all.

I am trying not the make the same mistake with my next batch.

 

[Biologrady]

I agree, probably a lighting issue. I keep the lights on in the coop until I go to bed, and 4 out of five are laying; the fifth is more slow to recover from her molt.

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

Lots of reasons they can stop laying from molting, stress, cold snaps, injuries, illness, lighting, age, breed, etc...Stop by this thread on Why My Chickens Are Not Laying. This thread may give you some ideas as to why yours are not laying...https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/423023/why-arent-my-chickens-laying-here-are-your-answers

You can even post questions there as well. Good luck and I hope you can get this figured out soon!

 

[sunflour]

glad you joined us.

 

[Wyandottes7]

Welcome to BYC!

We're glad to have you.

 

[BantamLover21]

Glad you joined us!