New home, no eggs

[greatbarnet]

I have very recently moved my chickens into a new coop: Three nights ago I moved them out of their old house (an Eglu) after they'd gone to bed, and put them in the new house (Green Frog Lodge). Ditto the following night. Yesterday the Eglu was locked up and they went into the new house to roost by themselves without difficulty (hooray!!) The coop is in a large run but they free range most of the time.

Anyway, since they have slept in the new house my Welsummer (the only hen who lays) hasn't laid an egg. Is this normal when they've gone through a minor disruption like moving home? Do they hold on to eggs if they don't think there's a safe place to lay, and if so is that dangerous? Or do they actually 'decide' not to make an egg? (Sorry if this is a stupid question)

How can I make her understand that there are nest boxes in there - should I shut her in the run until she lays me an egg? She's free ranging at the moment and I don't want her finding some bush to do it under instead....

 

[Marigold]

Any sort of disruption to their living conditions is potentially stressful to chickens and it's not at all unusual for them to go off lay for while as a result. A new coop is like moving house would be for humans, and we all know how much stress that can cause! I have a Green Frog and i know it's very different from my previous eglu (a big improvement in my opinion, but it may take the hens a while to realise that.) No point shutting her in the coop, this would only stress her out more, and wouldn't have the effect you hope for. If you have a suitable run, you could try shutting them in there for a day or so, with some greenstuff to compensate for the lack of ranging, if you think she might be laying away from home. I expect it will just take a few days for them to feel really at home in the lovely new coop, and then she will feel safe to lay in there.
A hen's anatomy is very curious - at any time, a hen in lay has a cluster of ripening egg cells in her system, at different stages of development, rather like a bunch of grapes of different sizes from very small to quite large and ready to be released into her oviduct and eventually laid that day. I expect that they delay the release of the next cell if they are stressed, and this is what causes the temporary pause in production. Not anything to worry about.

 

[greatbarnet]

Oh good as long as it's normal behaviour for her to go off lay for a bit. Yes the house is in a fairly large walk-in run, so maybe tomorrow I'll try and leave them in there and see how we go (sorry I did mean shut her in the run before, I wouldn't shut her in the coop). She has previous history of laying around the garden so I should probably try and avoid that. Hopefully she'll settle down in a day or two, thanks.

And I agree, their anatomy is indeed curious; I am in endless confusion as to how everything works!

 

[Marigold]

Yes, and at this time of the year, with the light levels declining, laying is becoming a bit hit and miss for many hens, isn't it? Maybe she's using the new home as an excuse for making less effort! It might help to give her a nice high-protein mash made of layers pellets soaked in hot water until just crumbly, plus mix in some hulled sunflower seeds, maybe even some scrambled egg if you have a spare one. I've found this sometimes gives mine a bit of a boost when coming out of moult or off being broody, to get them back into lay. At the moment with mine, I'm feeding spare quails eggs in one end and hens eggs are coming out of the other!