Hi Claire, Any chance a hen will stop laying due to being cooped up? A few have just begun to lay two of which are MIA, but thats a whole different matter and we have had no success getting the two layers who are not MIA to lay IN the coop. Golf balls, nope. Their own eggs, nope. Keep them cooped until later in the day, nope. They have plenty of room, water, food. We move the coop regularly to keep fresh ground under them its very wet here so the flies get crazy.
One stopped laying all-together a couple days in but the other one has not been phased. The other still lays consistently she just goes back to her nest in the bushes every day to lay and have even had a brand new layer today. Still no pretty blue eggs from our gal. Claire, we have 10 pullets, 8 who had just started laying in August Australorps and Cuckoo Marans and 2 different breeds who were purchased at the local fair in August and who I do not think had started laying.
A few of the Australorps were at the fair but returned home at its end. We have only gotten 1 -2 eggs from the entire flock each week since mid August, following the fair. All appear healthy and are fed a layer ration and crushed oyster shells, plus some veggies, lettuce, etc. They have plenty of light. We have a flock of older hens in a different coop on same feed who are laying fine. Hopefully one of our readers will share their suggestions, Claire. We have 2 seperate coops of hens.
Back in March we bought 18 new chicks and when they got big enough, split them half and half between the two coops. Each coop had a handful of older hens pretty much past their major laying days.
Fast forward to now and one coop gives tons of eggs today we got 11 and the other gives almost none today 2. The bulk of these hens came from the same hatching and are all the same breed. Why would half our hens not lay? We have decided to let our birds rest this winter and not provide any extra light seemed natural and I see you are in favor. I wonder if this will prolong their egg laying life span or will it remain the same?
I guess the only way to tell would be to do a YEARS long study, but since I am new at this I was wondering if the study has already been done. Hi Jennifer, No sure about long term studies but yes, it does keep them laying longer certainly.
Hens are born with a maximum amount of eggs they can lay throughout their life- so forcing them to laying during winter burns them out as they hit this limit sooner. Our birds are yo. Blaming winter on the heels of a heavy molt. They love a good paste. Just some FYI. So glad I found this information! I was so worried about them. So double whammey! I have two Easter eggers, one Barnevelder and one silkie. One egger started laying two weeks ago. They are all 24 weeks old.
She layed five eggs. One every other day and then two each day. Next day I picked her up cause she was not herself and egg yellow squirted out of her.
I got her inside the bathtub and since she was not a fan of bath time I applied a warm moist cloth. Within a couple of minutes she squatted and laid a rubber egg. She was foraging all day a couple of days ago in the rain. She seemed really hungry!! Yesterday no egg, but she seems normal. We live in PNW. I give them oyster shells and started mixing layer pellets into grower pellets for about a week. Today I started only layer feed. I cut down on vegetables, I prob fed too many. I have 5 golden comments and two buff orpingtons.
When I got the commets I put them in with the orpingtons. Like normall, no eggs for 2 days but then I got eggs a day after that. Inside there run I had a smaller run with 5 week old chickens in it. This never affected them. It has been about 3 months since I got the commets and until last week he laid just fine. They started again but stopped shortly after. For about a week I got only 2 eggs a day. I moved there coop a week ago and they still are only laying 2 eggs a day.
I have feed my chickens mealworms from day 1. The love them! Please help fast!!! Hi Gabe, It sounds like your hens have had a lot of disruption over the last few weeks- with the flock additions and coop replacement. Ok, yesterday i got 4 eggs but today I got only 2 again. It just scares me that they went from a day to 2 in 1 days time! I will give them a while, after another week or so. If there still jot laying then then I will come back here and let you know.
Is this usual? I have a friend who has at least 30 chickens over a year old. They have never laid an egg. I think they get straight poultry pellets, nothing else. They have a dog that runs around the outside of the coup trying to play with them and I think that stresses them out.
For a while they had no nesting boxes but that has changed. They moved the entire coop because something was getting them through the fence in the original location. I am going to suggest changes to their diet, not sure if the dog issue can be resolved, and also that they treat them for parasites. I also think there are too many in the space but then again these big egg producers keep them in tiny cages. Anyway, can you think of anything else? If you want the hens to start laying you need to resolve the stress issue first.
Hi, I traveled for 4 days and gave instruction to my cousin to help look after my layers but to my amazement, he went doing his own. The birds were looking tired when I came back after 4 days.
Please how long will they stay before laying again, Thanks. Hi Festus, With a disruption like this, it normally takes a couple of weeks for them to get back to normal. Your notes are very much helpfull for me and my poultry group, i always prefer your notes and translate them in my local mother toung and share them on my whatsapp group as well as my facebook page. Thank you very much. I have four Golden Commets, and they are great. Very friendly and very docile.
I also noticed that it helps keep the flies down. If I notice chicken poop on the egg shells, I put a little DE in with their feed to kill any parasites in their digestive track, and their eggs come out nice and clean. I filled a large plastic container with it and added some DE to it for my chickens to bathe it when it their is inclement weather so that they can always take a dust bath.
What can I do so she can lay eggs?? Hello We have 7 australorp hens and they are less than a year old. We were getting 7 eggs a day and now we are down to a day. I have checked around the pen and they are not hiding or eating them. Help what do I do? Hi Laura, It is normal for their egg laying to slow down as we head into winter now.
I live in New Zealand, so we are in Spring now. I have 2 Australorps,, 1 Barnvelder and 1 Light Sussex. They are all about 3 years old. This last winter was cold and wet and they stopped laying, except occasional eggs from the Light Sussex. They get fed laying pellets, garden greens, oats and some canned cat food, free access to oyster shells and fresh water. Everyone looks healthy, except the Light Sussex who is low on the pecking order and has a naked neck.
Suggestions for the other girls? Will all the chickens moult at once or will it be random? Also, is scratch grains or cracked corn better for chickens in the winter? Hi Abby, It will generally happen to all the hens at once- give or take a week or so.
I have had my point of lay chickens about 3 months now but only 2 are laying, should i be worried about health problems? Thanks Sharon. Make sure they are fed well and have access to plenty of water. I have recently changed brands of Layer Pellets and my girls have all but stopped laying. Both layer feeds have the same amount of protein. Could just changing brands cause them to stop? They have been on the new brand since March. Hi Cindy, Yes it could well have caused the drop in production.
Have you tried them again on the original feed? We ran out of layer pellets last week for like 4 days before we were able to run and grab more.
In the mean time they got corn, weeds, and scraps. Now even after they have gotten extra layer pellets twice a day numbers are continuing to decline. How long are they going to take to recover???
I recently rescued a hen that had been abandoned in a parking lot. She was malnourished and dehydrated but recovered totally with proper nutrition and TLC. However she has not laid a single egg in 2 months now. She looks like a hybrid but I have no way of knowing how old she is. So I thought nothing of it until they started laying, so now some times they lay eggs and then stepping on them. Now i forgot to clean the boxes while i was gone. Now i have done everything you said to do other then the light.
I just cleaned them to day and i was hoping some one might have some other reasons that they might have stopped. I have had 3 hens for 6 weeks, bought them at point of lay, 1 Isa Brown, 1 Australorp and 1 white Leghorn. The brown laid first and did 1 egg almost every day for 10 days, then has stopped completely.
The other 2 have been consistent with laying. Puzzling why she has stopped so soon after starting. At the moment we have 13 hours of daylight. We have 7 hens that have completely stop laying for about 1 month.
The only change has been that we got 16 meat chicks one month ago. The coop is split in half by wire, so the grownups are separated from the younguns. Is this enough to stress them out to stop laying? Thank you! This is a great article. Its been over a month sense they have consistently laid. We are in Massachusetts so the weather just started to get relatively warm, but not much sunny days in April here. I also want to know if it could be because they are not digesting their food properly have not used grit for them in a while and maybe need some extra protein suppliments like oyster shell.
Any other information that you could give on how to check the chickens to see if they are okay would be great. Did their living quarters change suddenly? Is it secure from predators and stress? Also, are they free ranging? I have a 3 year old Easter Egger in my flock of 10 hens.
She was a daily layer for 2 years. Whenever mine do the squat, particularly after a break of laying, I give them about pats down the back. They then shake and fluff up, and are generally back laying again within two days. I have one hen, Ruby — Rhode Island Red, and she is 3 years old. We had a total of 3 hens — one was killed by a raccoon and the other was killed by a hawk. She witnessed both deaths. She free ranges all day.
Fresh water in 2 locations for her — changed daily. She is happy as can be, but no eggs! Any idea why? I just want her to be healthy and happy. I am fine with her not laying, but is this ok, health-wise? Hi, new mom to 7 started pullets, they seem very happy as I worked hard on a safe and entertaining space for them.
This question is for this winter. Thank you in advance. We are new to this. She seemed fine. We got her the non gmo organic food they had at the place. Just found your site. We went on vacation. My mom said she kept squatting down and ran back to her coop.
We let them free range. The next day she was dead on her side. Our hearts are broken. How do we know? How do we prevent this? Could it be something else? She did sometimes open her beak but I thought she was hot. She stopped after being out for a bit. The other one seems fine. We just bought a new 3mo. She was very close to her sister and her death effected her severely. She is an Australorp cross and prior to this has been a very good layer, with an egg nearly every day. It is coming into winter now and was molting and had mild fowlpox after the death of her sister but recovered quickly and has been very healthy for months now.
We recently introduced a new pullet of the same breed of our other hens but they have all been getting on very well. Any advice would be much appreciated. Also, how long has there been additional hens with her?
Hello, I have 4 Hy-line chickens that are all 23 weeks old. The other one is still laying beautiful eggs. Any advice would be very helpful! I recently acquired two hens whose flock had been attacked by a fox there were 8 hens.
One started laying within days, but the other has yet to lay. He acts like a LA gang-member. He took on the biggest hawk the first day. No more hawks. He took on two big dogs and a medium size cat within two weeks. They packed up and left too. There were two additional benefits: this year we they hatched our first chicks and I did nothing.
Mama and Rudy handled it all. Chicks are doing fine. The second benefit was that the various dogs and woodland creatures that were always tipping over my trash cans finally had to go out, get a real job and make an honest living. Go Rudy! I grew up with the chopping block and axe but was somewhat uncomfortable with it myself.
We used "gentle" killing of our ducks so I decided to try the method with chickens - works great. Kneeling, place the body of the calmed chicken between your legs. Bring the neck forward long and straight. Dig the fingers of one hand into the neck just below the head and hold the head and neck firmly. Taking a sharp knife - I used a hunting knife - draw it firmly across the neck from below. One good cut will do it; if you have to do a second it is usually merely to cut the vertebral column.
We hang them in the trees until they have bled out but that wouldn't be necessary as most of the bleeding occurs very quickly. Lay a steel bar across their neck right behind their head, step on both sides of the bar and pull their legs.
The chickens head will come right off. We butchard hundreds of chickens this way growing up. Keep a turkey fryer with boiling water handy to dip them in before pulling the feathers. Keep your freezers full. She may not be ready to lay eggs yet, they start at their own pace.
Every hen is different, just as every person is different. There are many factors that come into play. She may not feel comfortable enough with you or the area she has to lay them. Many hens will not lay if they feel scared. The amount of day light may not be long enough. She may not be getting enough of something, malnourished.
Or it could just be that she has one and cannot push it out. If that is the case. She may just absorb the egg back into her body and recycle it. She could be sterile, meaning that she cannot make eggs, it happens to a lot of animals. Of course there is the possibility that she is laying somewhere else, hiding them. Herself or other hens could be eating them.
I say just wait and see what happens. Calm down. It's just like human puberty, everyone starts at their own pace. Some won't start laying until they are a year old. Others start at 5 months. Give it time. Until then, hold her. Get her used to you. Spend some time with her.
Feed her from your hand every once in a while, to make sure she has enough. You should pick them up and hold them, almost daily, until they are about 10 weeks old. Then weekly after that, so they stay used to you. Please I need help. I have 60 broiler parent stock which they are 8month old. Check if they are getting enough water--too little can cause the birds to stop laying. Is the water frozen? Also, make sure that the birds are getting a balanced diet, about 16 to percent protein.
Make sure the feed also has enough calcium. Are they molting? If so, that may be a sign that their bodies are just resting and recharging for another round of egg laying.
Good layers will sometimes lay for about 50 or 60 weeks and then go through a rest period. As daylight hours decrease, egg laying is sometimes affected; hens need about 14 hours of daylight to lay eggs.
If daylight is below that usually October through February , providing a little extra artificial light for those lost hours, might help. One Cooperative Extension site recommends adding one watt light per feet of coop; turn the lights on in the morning for those added hours, so that the birds can roost at sunset.
Stress also can cause a hen to stop laying--are there any predators or other things about that might scare them?
New routines? Changes in environment has their area become damp or chill, or too hot? Age and diseases may also affect laying. I have 8 hens: 1 3-y. Langshan, 1 2-y. Cuckoo Marans, 2 1-y. Ameraucanas, 2 1-y. Barnevelders, and 2 m. Black Copper Marans. The Langshan hasn't consistently laid eggs since her first winter and she hasn't laid any eggs since this last spring.
I fully expected the others to stop laying when going through molt, but not the new young, Black Copper Marans. I expected them to start laying in July, which they did, and keep laying through the winter. No dice. What happened to the Langshan and the Cuckoo Marans? Why are they no longer laying eggs? Why did the BCMs stop laying so soon?
They are in a very large pen 30x90 and they also get rotated into other areas in my yard with netting 50x They get grass, bugs, table scraps only fresh and what they like , and organic feed. I rarely find eggs in odd places. A fox came through 5 weeks ago and grabbed one of the Ameraucanas, but I scared him off and saved the hen.
She was already molting when she went on antibiotics. I did not expect her to lay again until the new year. She is back to laying and I can't use her eggs because of the antibiotics. Hi I live in Oak Point, Manitoba. I was wondering if there is a way to find out if we are allowed to have chickens, and what guidelines we need to follow. Any help is appreciated. I am a newer chicken owner.
We currently have 29 hens of mixed breeds that are about 18 mos old now we got them as chicks. It's been a bit alarming as we thought we had another 6 months of good egg laying yet from our ladies.
They all act healthy, lively and are eating good - both garden scraps and layer feed. I haven't seen a ton of feathers lately, but did notice some molting earlier this summer. They have a large run, that is shaded with free access to water and I even have grass growing in boxes for them to get access to fresh grass when they want to, as well.
No bug infestation, snakes, etc that we can find to cause stress. I do suspect that my Golden Laced Wyandottes are fighting as they're missing feathers along their heads they actually look like Turkens!!
Would that be enough to stress the whole flock though? Your chickens are probably molting loosing their old feathers and growing new while in their molt all the energy that normally goes into egg production goes into new feathers.
They will start laying within weeks, depending on the breed and age of the chicken. Do chickens stop laying when the nest get full? We were on vacation for two weeks and returned to 3 full nests. We have not gotten any new eggs since we returned. Did your chickens start laying again, and if so, how long did it take for the laying to restart? I have 2 hens. Returning from a two weeks holiday we had 27 eggs, just 1 short of normal. Apart from the day after we got back, one of my chickens is not laying.
It has now been a week since we got back. Are chickens still good to eat at 3yr old. They are black sex links which are good for laying and eating. So are they still good to butcher and sell? My girls laid all winter long! They come when i call and love the fresh sprouts i give them once a week!
Why do all of my chickens want to lay in the same box? We have enough boxes for all of them but they all want in one box? I have a chicken question that I couldn't find anywhere online. We live in Northern Idaho and the days get short quick in the late fall and winter. We have done pretty good in keeping our chickens laying, as we had a heat lamp and light in the coop. But a couple of weeks ago we lost our electricity to our coop. The egg production dropped off rapidly.
They were out of the extended light for a couple of weeks almost. But we did get everything hooked up again. But it has been 10 days and still no eggs. Will we get more eggs this winter do you think or is it a lost cause until the spring? Happy New Years to all and I just joined today. As other members have posted my 6 hens only produce 1 or 2 eggs a day.
They went through molting about 2 months ago and I live in central PA; getting colder of course but have good size pen and protection from cold. I feed them mash, corn, and provide grit; always plenty of water. Should I try a different food? I give them some scraps but not a lot. I keep straw in their nests and they like some around the ground area. Any suggestions are most appreciated. They are nice pets but I'm still buying eggs! When I was a boy, I had chickens for a 4H project.
She put them in a pot of water and warmed it up. I took it out to the chicken house and placed it in the middle of the pen. Bingo, they started laying again I continued this for the duration of the cold weather. Please keep all comments on topic, folks, or they will be deleted. And many thanks to the members of our community who have helped answer questions on this page! I recently got my hands on six Rhode Island reds, The previous owner said they would lay about a day, and at first they did.
Well now they have completely stopped laying all together! I went to feed them earlier today and they didn't even want to eat! Im worried, I live in louisiana. Could it be the heat? But they have also lived in louisiana there whole lives. Could it be the move? But they were laying after the move! I need help!! Hi we live in Florida and have several golden comets. They molted a few months ago and a few of them are not regaining their feathers. The skin color is pink on the back and a bright red on their bottoms.
Is there anything we can do to help with this process. As far as I can tell they are still laying with no problems. When we recently moved I adopted two bantam hens, coop and all.
They are about 5 years old. They had been using nothing but straw for their coop and nesting area all their lives. The urban farm store around here convinced me to try special, non-dusty pine shavings made specially for hens. I cleaned the coop thoroughly and replaced all the straw with the shavings. They are extremely suspicious of the new digs.
They don't even want to go in there. Any suggestions? Yeah, give them back their straw. Store owners make their money selling stuff that most of our animals don't need, don't want and won't use. Straw can get moldy when wet and mites seem to like it because it has hollow stalks. Hay is better, however they will get used to the shavings. Try putting down some treats with the shavings, like dried mealworms.
I think mine would walk through fire to get them! I have an old bantam we got from rescue. It was in fairly bad state but is so much better now. We are almost certain we have seen it lay eggs. I say it as it is now crowing and have not had any eggs for month any where near it. Any ideas. Hen or cockerel. You can remove her from the nest holding her for awhile away from the nesting box this I heard works some time she will complain when u remove her she is in a brooding mode I do asume you have no rooster so removing her might work or put her so she can not get back in the nest go to backyardchicken.
My dad told me that when they had a broody hen, they would dunk her in cold water. He said sometimes they had to do it twice, but it always broke their broodiness. She has gone broody. Usually the hen will lay on other chickens eggs. Her system shuts down and she stops laying and prepares for hatching babies. If you keep taking the eggs usually they'll stop this after awhile or you can isolate them so there won't be eggs to lay on and she should snap out of it sooner.
Some hens are more broody then others mine I just let them go through it and remove the eggs. If you do let her sit on them and you have a rooster she may hatch you some chicks.
Only clip one wing so their flight will be off balance. If the ends of the feathers are black, that is what you want to clip off. They will grow back when the birds molten but not before unless they lose a feather for some other reason. My broody hen sat on 11 eggs for 21 days and only one chick hatched out. She continued to sit for two more days On the third day she pecked one egg open and there was a fully formed chick inside but it was not alive.
The remaining eggs feel heavy so expect they also have chicks. Why are they not hatching? Any help would be appreciated. I have a 3 year old roadisland red that wants to go to the nesting box, but no egg, i have checked and she is not egg bound, could she just be at the end of her laying cycle at 3? Hello Elizabeth, I have 3 Barred Rocks hens that are just over one year old.
They all started laying at 6. As the length of day decreased, I supplemented with artificial light on a timer, and they kept laying.
Then in December one pullet stopped laying. Her eggs always had a slight blood smear on the shell. She has not laid an egg since then and has gotten fat. Here it is May, she's a full-grown hen, and a nonlayer. Do you think she will ever lay again?
Or, is she destined for the stewpot? Please advise, and thank you. My 6 month old hens suddenly stopped producing. I have 4 production reds.
I was getting everyday. The last week I am getting Days are getting longer not shorter. I have 1 leghorn 2 sexlinks 1 barred rock. Every night i take all the left overs from the day, I call them they come running they go in the run and wait for the food they also get chicken feed.
I also heard cat food has alot of protein so they eat the cat food. They will produce again be patient. I have 4 hens a year old and get eggs everyday they are free range but they have wondered to far lately so i bought a dog run and put the coop in the run across the yard away from the pourch and kept them in the run for a week letting them out in short sperts thinking they will stay home.
Now I get eggs. Did I blow it by moving the coop.. Are they unhappy now. Is it possible that they are laying their eggs somewhere other than their Coop? Assuming their coop allows plenty of space, we would suggest that you only let them out in the early afternoon for a couple weeks. Then, do not let them out until 10 am or so--as chickens usually lay early in the day once they get established.
Sense the last time i wrote. My girls have started laying again. I spoin my chickens i also give them table scrapes being careful not to give them spicy foods..
They love cooked rice. They run to me when i come outside. Hens may lay fewer eggs due to light, stress, poor nutrition, molt or age.
Some of these reasons are natural responses, while others can be fixed with simple changes and egg laying can return to normal. Backyard Poultry. Nutritionist, Companion Animal Technical Solutions. Drink coffee. Collect farm fresh eggs from your backyard flock. As the days become shorter and temperatures drop, you may notice fewer eggs when you go out to the chicken coop. Hens might take a short vacation from laying eggs and the reasons range from life stage to when the sun rises and sets.
Some of these reasons are natural while others can be fixed with simple changes. Then, before you go looking for an egg thief, here are five factors to consider that can affect egg production: Daylight The first and most common cause of decreased egg production is light hours.
Hens need a minimum of 16 hours of daylight to sustain strong production. Reasons your chickens are not laying Your hens may not be laying because they are too young.
Your hens may not be laying because they are very old. Your hens may not be laying because it's wintertime. Your hens may not be laying because they're molting feathers. Your hens may not be laying because they're broody.
Your hens may not be laying because they have internal parasites, because they have external parasites, or because they're ill.
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