are my hens done laying?

[JoshB]

hi all,

im not the most experienced here so i wanted to get your feedback. my hens are now 5.5 years old. i forget what breeds they are but maybe you guys can help me with that.
they've all but stopped laying and im not sure if it's age, season, feed, or what. it seems so odd to me that all of them would stop laying altogether.
are they just too old? they used to hide their eggs really well in the yard and for a while i thought the raccoons were stealing eggs every night but ugh i just can't figure out what the issue is !

any help is much appreciated!

 

[chrismahon]

At that age they will all be coming to end-of-lay JoshB, but it is unusual that they would all finish abruptly at the same time. Possible reasons as follows. They feel insecure for some reason- perhaps a predator nearby? At that age they will only lay in conditions they see fit to rear chicks, so if they think anything could access their eggs they will simply stop laying any. Could be mites in the nest boxes, but that's unlikely. A sudden change in the weather will see them stop for a while as well. Then there is the other option that they are still laying, but you can't find the eggs or something has taken them. In the UK it would be rats taking them from the nest boxes or even crows going into the coop, or in our case a neighbour stealing them (I fitted padlocks to the doors and nest boxes and they all started laying immediately!!!!)

Have you seen them going in to lay recently? If you can't be there watching them all the time, perhaps a motion sensitive trail camera would solve the mystery?

 

[JoshB]

Thanks for the info @chrismahon !
I think I am going to relocate their coop. One of our tortoises has recently taken up residence near the current coop location so maybe that is what is spooking them. I am/was expecting them to really slow down but not this much and not all at once. It's relatively warm here in southern California and there's plenty for them to eat, so they must just not feel safe.

 

[Icemaiden]

Something frightening them definitely sounds like a probable cause for them all to stop laying at once, as Chris suggests.

We had a neighbour for a (mercifully short) while, who kept roaring around near our boundary on a quad bike. That had the same effect.

 

[bigyetiman]

It does sound as though they may have been spooked by something. it isn't always something obvious either

We had something similar with a quad bike as well

 

[JoshB]

I just found 6 eggs in the coop !
I think the combination of switching to a higher quality food and moving the coop helped. Thanks all for the tips and insights! I'm so excited as the price of eggs here is definitely creeping up

 

[JoshB]

I just found a bunch more eggs in the bushes. Stubborn ol' ladies