How to tell if a hen isnt laying?

[Lucylou]

Surely by the law of averages when you only have 5 chooks, once in a while they should all lay on the same day.

When poor Doris went to the great hen house in the sky the vet advised to bin her eggs as a precaution & on checking I realised that she hadn't been laying for over a week. So this made me wonder which chooks were laying & I started to keep a record. Over 3 weeks I've had between none & 4 eggs a day usually 3 or 4. (The most I've had was 5 once, back in January when I had 6 chooks)

So, should I worry about the one not laying? I think its the cuckoo maran, same age, same everything as the others, & is there anything I should do to get her laying again. All LF, more or less same age, mixed breeds.

Any advice welcome :? Thank you.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Lucylou,

This is a difficult one, and I have the same problem. Over time, I have discovered that the ability of a hen to lay eggs comes down to several things:

General overall health
Age
Breed
Weather
Good nutrition
Surroundings
Stress levels

I'm sure there are more! If any one of these is out of balance, this can affect your hens either as individuals or as a whole flock.

With young pullets just coming into lay, you can tell the layers by the space between the pelvic bones. These bony prominences are felt on each side of the vent. If you can get 2 or 3 fingers between them, the bird is laying. If you can only get 1 finger between the bones or there is only a small gap, then she's probably not.

For older hens who have previously laid, the only way I know of is to separate them or use trapnests. This is pretty labour intensive (which is why I've never done it!).

Different breeds have different laying habits too. Most hybrids will lay daily in their 1st 18 months of life, whereas many pure breeds will lay fewer eggs on a weekly basis, but will continue to lay into their old age.

My summary is: There's nothing wrong if the hens are healthy and happy and you are happy with the eggs you get.

I hope this is of some help!