Stopped laying eggs

[shez]

I have 5 ex battery hens that used to lay approx 3 or 4 eggs a day up until a couple of weeks ago when we introduced a new hen some chicks and last week 4 new point of lay hens. Unfortunately the ex bats seem to be sulking and have stopped laying! I only get one egg from them a day. Could this just be the stress of the new arrivals? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sheryl x

 

[Davidd]

Hello,as long as they are healthy,and showing no signs of illness/lice/mites etc then it is quite normal-they will go off lay- the hot weather will also slow them down- hens don't lay all year around- they might be going into an early moult or just having a break- they will come back into lay.
regards, David

 

[shez]

Thanks David. Could it be the introduction of the new hens that has stopped them laying?

 

[Tim]

There will be a strain on the pecking order from the new arrivals but I doubt this will have caused them to stop laying.

They could have just come to the end of their laying cycle - they may take a short rest or go through a partial moult. I don't know how old they are and how long you have had them but if they layed through the winter then now would be time for a rest...

Do check the house for Red Mite though - there are lots of these around and the first thing hens will usually do is stop laying.

Tim

 

[shez]

Hi we have checked the chickens and can't see any mites at all and no grey dust around the crevices in the coop so hopefully it's not mites. We have 5 ex bats that are about 18 months old and 3 brand new point of lay leg horns plus one rhode island red that us just breaking being broody also one daisy belle that we think may have laud her first egg a couple of days ago as it was tiny and the shell really thin we only bought her last week too so our poor ex bats have gone to having everything to themselves to having to share it with 5 more birds and also 6 new chicks so maybe they are just sulking? Thanks so much for all the advice.
Sheryl
x

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Shez

Have recently taken delivery of another batch of ex batts (now up to 214).
This is the 4th batch we have taken and since day one i have kept a log of eggs layed etc.
On every occasion that we have taken a new batch of hens, I have noted an immediate drop in the number of eggs layed.
I also noted that it takes the flock between two and three weeks to return to the egg amounts that existed before the introduction of new stock.

Hope that helps

cheers

steve

 

[shez]

Thanks so much Steve. That is the perfect answer that I really wanted to hear!!! fingers crossed they are just sulking thanks again xxx