If you have a small poultry farm or hutches filled with egg laying poultry animals such as chickens, you might want to install a CCTV to keep watch of what it is happening. Most of the time you will see other type of critters and foreign animals stealing your chicken eggs but there are lots of video evidence that points to a person stealing an egg.
It is nice that you have included it in your list! Skip to content It can be quite alarming when a poultry owner gets a consistent five eggs, daily, from five hens, only to find just one egg for a few days. Why do hens stop laying eggs? At months of age, and every year thereafter, chickens will replace their feathers. Feathers will fall out to make room for new feather growth.
During this time, hens will stop laying eggs. Chickens need about hours of light per day to produce eggs. The first year, most laying breeds will lay through the winter without artificial lighting. Too many goodies. Think of kids, if you unleashed your kids at a buffet, and told them they could get whatever they want, most would load up at the dessert table. Your girls will do the same thing, filling up on bread, table scraps etc.
This is usually a slowdown, more than a stoppage. 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. Without supplemental light, they may naturally stop laying eggs due to a hormonal response as the days get shorter.
Hens lay best when provided at least 16 hours of day light, whether natural, artificial or a combination of the two. Some flock raisers use winter as a period of rest for their hens without supplemental light.
We recommend using one incandescent watt or LED 3- to 9-watt bulb per square feet of coop space. Coop Environment If birds are stressed, egg production may suffer. Stress comes in many forms — predators, over-crowding, aggressive hens, loud noises, too much heat or cold, poor nutrition and illness. Use these tips for keeping the chicken coop stress-free: Predator proof your coop with galvanized wire and add metal screens on doors and windows. Provide at least 4 square feet of indoor space and square feet of outdoor space per bird.
Offer one nesting box per four hens with clean, dry bedding. Separate hens if the pecking order becomes aggressive. Keep temperatures comfortable in the coop, but not drastically different than outdoors. Chickens, especially cold-tolerant breeds, can withstand winter temperatures without supplemental heat. Disclosure : We may earn affiliate commissions at no cost to you from the links on this page.
This did not affect our assessment of products. Find full disclosure here. Our chickens were out of water for a short time and 2 days after abruptly stopped laying eggs. How long does it usually take for them to start laying again? Hi Michele, Give them a good week with access to water and they will be laying again! My chickens free range they are fed organic layer pellets. They have a snack block. Access to two water sources. They are laying type breeds. My chickens have layed eggs when i got them.
But they have stopped for nearly a year but with your help that you have told me they have being laying 9 eggs in 2 days. Will she ever lay again? Nearly identical to my situation. Molted last fall first molt then started laying, stopped again in February after I switched food accidentally getting a low protein blend.
Actually all three stopped laying, but once I switched back to the high protein diet two started back up. Diega Rhode island red never started up again.
She was 6 eggs a week!. Its been four months without eggs and her tail feathers havent returned. Shes seems healthy and happy, great appetite, energetic.
Im stumped. If something gets in the cage and kills a couple of chickens will that cause the others to not lay? It seems to have happened to me. I had a rash of disappearances, some with evident feathers ,some not. The hens stayed in the coop on their highest roost for long periods of time, and returned more often when free ranging.
Best use a live trap with dry cat food. They LOVE it. We caught 5 in a month and sent them off to possum heven. More often they are actually an asset to the farm as they eat rats, snakes and a ridiculous amount of ticks as well!
They are not aggressive creatures and they never carry rabies as their body temperature is too low to incubate the disease. They have unjustly been given a bad wrap probably because they are not the most attractive creatures out there. This sight happened to appear on my facebook one day and it really changed the way I think of possums. I actually invite folks to leave there unwelcome possums at my place so they can do what they do and they have never been a problem.
As part of the food chain, foxes and coyotes will eat possums as they are an easy target. Having some around may save your chickens from being the next meal! Maybe she has a cold? Is it cold where you are? We have a chicken that sneezes but she is laying. We have a gray fox eating our chickens. We lost 3 just over a week ago and our 4 that are left are not laying at all as of this week.
I am not letting them free range as much because I cant afford to lose any more hems in the past year the fox has taken 10 pullets and 7 full grown hens and a baby goat. She has a den just outside our pasture somewhere and raises her kits there every year for the past 3 or 4 years. We have tried varment control boxes. The work somewhat but tend to wear out quickly. Especially with goat rubbing against the fence all the time. I have thought about just leaving out cat food in the far corner of my pasture, maybe that would detour her away from the chickens.
Any suggestions? I have 3 chickens 2 of them lay regularly and a 3rd one, a one year old Wellsummer, will sit on the nest but lately has not produced an egg. She had been laying one about every other day. Should I be concerned? We have 10 hens and none of them have laid in the last three months. We give them layer pellet. They forage all over the large yard most of the day.
Literally 0 pellets. Their poop all looks totally normal! How old are your hens? Are they eating a lot? Have you recently introduced any new breeds into your flock? I have run into this same problem… I received a brood of 12 from a friend, all hens and all are less than 2 years old. I got them home at night, hoping this would lessen their stress of transport and put them in a coop. They were all laying just about everyday for almost 2 weeks, maybe three.
It is now January and they are still not laying. None appear sick and their poop is regular. Thank you. Hi Jess, Are you feeding them any crushed oyster shell at the moment?
Also, how much sunlight do they get? New hens from a friends then after a couple weeks ZERO eggs!! All are 10 months to 2years old! This happened once with mine after I moved there coops.
Later I found one big nest with 2 dozen eggs. I have the same issue now. My hens are 2years old. The only thing I can think of with mine is they are either eating their eggs or stressed because most of my mature hens, 5 total hide and roost in the top rafter part of my nest box.
They are trying their hardest to avoid my rooster and his son, a young cockeral who just end up with a beak full of feathers instead of the reward of mating. Maybe seperate the two boys for winter here??? Hmmmm, I always like to keep a roster or two because we sometimes sell fertle eggs for hatching. I had to give him away and then they were happy.
My rooster was harassing the hens all day and they got sick of him. Hermit crab food would be my guess? It has mad protein! Remember chickens are omnivores, they do eat meat. Mealworms, crickets, etc. Though I DID know a chicken who loved cheeseburgers….
One of my chickens found a rat, killed it and then ate it! Rats and mice are very high in protein and this may help. You can also hard boil eggs and smash them up shell also. You might try pouring a little hot sauce on their food.
Hot sauce does makes chickens lay more eggs. Try it — just a tiny bit. Hi, my name is Chanel and I live in Australia. My chooks are free range and I have an equal amount of roosters. They are let out in the morning to forage near the creek and get locked up at night. I feed them layer pellets and scraps. Despite the fact there are plenty of foxes at night and the hens have an equal amount of roosters by happy accident ,they lay like crazy.
I put it down to being largely left alone no dogs or people around harassing them all the time. Just giving them some peace and a reluable routine does wonders for all critters.
Love your book and enjoy your birds everyone! Do you live in southern states? Cause we had this same problem. And it turned out to be rat snakes, they would eat the eggs. I have four 2 year old black sexlinks, in the past four months three hens have stopped laying,except I get rubber eggs occasionally,always broken. I have fed organic layer pellets consistently since they were 18 weeks old. Fresh water,free ranging and I offer oyster shell free choice.
They are probably laying their eggs outside somewhere, mine do that at times…. I lock them in run for a few days again to teach them where to lay again…….
Her comb is pale but she has no signs of illness. She only started laying in July. Any ideas? Hi Elise, Is she still broody now? Let me know! Parasites: This includes lice, mites and worms. The easiest way to treat any parasite it to spray both the chicken coop and the chickens with a poultry cleaner. Something like Johnsons Poultry Housing spray should do the trick.
You can put apple cider vinegar in there drinking water every day and it works well and is good for them… It even helps when they get runny poops etc…. Try diatomaceous earth, get the white kind, it is sold at the tractor supply store in large bags and it can be mixed with there food. Sprinkle it around any areas that they hang around and especially in there coop, inside the coop needs to be dusted well and it is natural and not a chemical spray which is bad for there lungs as their respiratory system is very sensitive, please stay away from sprays and add apple cider vinegar to there water and they will be like new in no time….
Please research this. Please, please, please! They have fresh water, layer feed, access to forage in the yard, and no new chickens have been introduced.
They stopped molting a month ago and still nothing. They were always pretty reliable. They are only 2 years old and are mixed breeds. Was wondering what you think might be the problem and what we can do about it.
Hi Cody, Thank you for getting in touch. How much daylight do they get at the moment? Also how much protein is in their layer feed? Thanks for getting back to me. They get around 8 hours of light or so this time of year. It is the same layer feed we have had them on since they started laying a couple of years ago. Let me know how they get on….
Thanks for the tips! It has been slow but we are finally getting around 6 or so eggs a day. A low number but better than nothing. Thanks again! Hie l have 15 hens in my back yard nut l pick only 2. If you need the egg supply you could consider fitting an artificial light in their coop. Our hens started getting broody, and we wanted more so we let them sit on the eggs and hatch. We then removed the rooster so that we could get unfertilized eggs again and have opened them up to roam freely with the sheep free range.
They all look healthy and the chicks are staying with the mothers, however we have now stopped getting eggs? Is this because they have chicks? Hi Eric, How recently have the chicks hatched?
She will need a few weeks after hatching the chicks and she will be back to normal! I have 12hens and one rooster I was getting eggs a day now I live in Blanchard ok we have a light on in the hen house and every thing else you have mentioned however their feathers on their backs are gone what causes this?
Hi Robin, Sounds to me like they could be molting! How long have their feather on their back been missing for? 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. Hmmmm this is a really interesting question Julia. They get light and a good feed, so what could be the problem? Out of my flock of 7, 6 are young and they seemed to stop laying. We get one egg every other day from one of our Americana but that is it. They free range from 8am-dusk they will go in the coop the coop is clean, fresh water and food daily…. Hi Jennie, How long have they not been laying eggs for? Have you changed their feed recently?
Appear to be very healthy and not broody. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! We feed them layers mash every day and they always have water. We have a large garden and we let them wander every day so they feel free, can find their own food and so on. One laid every day then stopped. It stopped laying while we were away for a week and the mother in law took over from us. The in laws keep their own completely free range hens next door to us including boys! Sitting outside their basket for hours on end.
Day after day. My wife let the girls out one day and left them all morning. Who knows what sweet nothings that Cockerel managed to share! They are constantly surrounded by daylight and we are moving into summer here now. Hi I have 5 hens and only 1 laying , we got them from a friend and they were all laying , when I got them they started molting that was 3 months ago , I had to buy fake eggs to see if it would work and only getting 1 egg a day and or sometimes every other day!!!
Theses hens are spoiled!!!!! I have read all of the comments and the post and I cannot find anything that fits my hens problem. Could that have something to do with it? There all eating well and have water and cleaness and no signs of sickness… I would appreciate anything you can help me with! Hi Trina, It sounds like there has been a lot of changes to the coop recently! Hi Tami, This is very normal and nothing to worry about.
Aloha from Kamuela, Hawaii. I have RR Chickens. They laid about 20 in a nest and one of the hens sat on the nest for about 2q days. However yesterday she was not there and there are no eggs now? What happened to all the eggs? Hi Pono, It sounds like a predator could have eaten the eggs- is there any signs of intrusion into the coop?
Then I borrowed a silky that hatched 3 more. I had 30 sold seven, 23 left plus 3 more babies back to My one hen is walking with open beak. You mentioned that , it is because of cold. Rainy season here. Any medicine for that? I have 7 layers — used to get eggs a day. Now we are getting maybe 1 a day. They get water and fed pellets oyster shell and granite.
And free range in the afternoon and all day on weekends. We got them Easter of Hi Amy, It sounds like you might have a feather plucker in your flock- either that or mites. Today she looks really down and is spending time on her own. Normally they hang around together and she normally runs over to me when I step out in the morning??
Thanks Kirsty. Then make sure to keep them warm, and put electrolytes into their water. If she continues to get worse visit your vet and get some antibiotics, Claire.
I have two laying hens, about 3 years old, that have stopped laying. For the past 2 weeks they have been fed laying feed. Otherwise they are fine and spoiled. Hi David, If they both stopped laying at the same time then it sounds like it was due to the non-laying feed. I would put them on a high protein layer feed for a few weeks to make sure they have enough protein in their body and then I expect they will start laying again.
My flock was attached by a fox on May 9…one of the two remaining chickens stopped laying. Plenty of food, water ect.. I have contributed her lack of production to shock. Do you think she will ever lay again? Hi Kate, So sorry to hear about your loss. If there was no physical damage to her- providing you give her plenty of food, water, love and time then with some luck she will start to lay again. I have 3 hybrid hens that are about 10 months old. They are in a large run most of the time, but free range for an hour a day too many foxes to allow longer.
They are fed layer pellets, greens, fruit and have access to clean water and grit. A few weeks before that, she went through a phase of laying several soft eggs at once. The weather here has been very wet. Any thoughts on what her problem is? Many thanks. Hi Lila, Soft eggs shells is normally a sign of calcium deficiency. Thank you for your reply.
They have oyster shell in the mixed grit that I give them. I have one hen that is sitting in the nesting box. It is summer time where I live and I am only getting three eggs a day. My ameraucanas and road island reds are less than a year old about six months. The mixed breed are about two years old. I am wondering why I am only getting three eggs a day. Thank you, TwinCity Do your best to keep them cool and well hydrated and then when the temperature drops they will continue to lay eggs.
Claire, Thank you. I have been freezing milk jugs and putting them out in the water dish and changing the water every 4 hours or until the water jugs melt. Is there anything else I can do to keep them cool? We have had our chickens for 6 weeks. One laid an egg every other day fora totalof 2 eggs after first arriving. Since then, nothing. We feed them the same stuff as the previous owners and plenty of it along with plenty of water.
Both chickens have laid before They are less than 1 year old. My wife and I havedecided these chickens will not get any more feed after this bag runs out. They can forage or we will have to find new homes. This has been such a pain. Has anyone else had this problem for so long? Also, you need to make sure that they feed they have is a high protein pellet for laying hens. I am SO frustrated. I have 5 beautiful girls.
They are 2 years old and have been good layers and lovely girls. This spring they were laying eggs per day for about a month and then went down to eggs per day. They get layer feed, oatmeal, pumpkin seeds, whole corn, watermelon, peaches, apples, and snacks of crickets and occasional tuna. They appear healthy, red waddles and combs, poop is great. I treated them with Garden and poultry dust and throughly cleaned the coup, the roosts and every nook and crevice got dusted and all clean wood shavings.
I would be interested to know if anyone else from the The Happy Chicken Coop community has any suggestions? Hi I have two hens. Henrietta Ranger was laying but then dropped a few very soft eggs and then stopped all together. She has the right food layers , let out to forage most days, clean water, grit and oyster shell, tried tonic and ACV.
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