Stopped laying

[Merryski]

Not been on the forum for quite a while and feel guilty, only ever seem to seek advice, anyway my girls are 18 months old and have always been good layers had 6 girls until and couple of weeks ago and would get 5/6eggs a day, introduced two new girls and they have happily joined with not too much bullying the new girls were around 20 weeks and layed a couple of nice little eggs but now for the last week have had no eggs whatsoever from any of them, they are eating and drinking and seem quite happy, am I being paranoid, last year they continued to lay through the winter albeit reduced numbers but never stopping completely
Any advice would be most helpful
Many thanks

 

[ducksgeesechooks]

Eighteen months old? Time for their first full adult molt. If your coop hasn't started looking like a pillow feather fight gone wrong, it should soon. From the time of this molt on, you can expect about the same every 12 months.

Now would be a good time to up their protein intake to help them regrow feathers (feathers being mostly protein) and get through their molt quickly. My adult hens (nearly 5 years old) are in their molt right now. I offer them daily protein boosts - cheese, mackerel (no eggs with a molt, so no worry about fishy tasting eggs), black oil sunflower seeds, and the like; also I change from the 16% protein layer pellet feed to the 20%. Lately I've had a glut of ducks eggs; those get mashed up and fed to my hens too.

 

[bantiekeeper]

Could also possibly be due to change of environment with the newbies and shorter day length.

 

[Merryski]

Funnily enough had now started to worry because I was finding lots of feathers, but you have put my mind at rest as I say they seem happy enough but it appears only one or two of the girls are mounlting and one cheeky girl keeps pecking at thier rear ends, is it normal though that they should all stop laying at the same time ? I do feed them organic layer pellets so will check what is in there and adjust the diet accordingly

 

[BabyBantam]

Moulting takes too much energy to produce eggs too. You'll find that they also sit around doing nothing and probably change eating habits whilst they moult. Make sure you don't handle them too much (in case you damage the new growing feathers) and worth feeding them mealworms and sunflower hearts to help them get the huge amount of protien they will need to make the feathers. They will either lose a few feathers a week, or drop a lot in one go (look like baby hedgehogs), but you'll not get eggs for a while. They'll start laying again soon, don't worry.

 

[ducksgeesechooks]

Funnily enough had now started to worry because I was finding lots of feathers, but you have put my mind at rest as I say they seem happy enough but it appears only one or two of the girls are mounlting and one cheeky girl keeps pecking at thier rear ends, is it normal though that they should all stop laying at the same time ? I do feed them organic layer pellets so will check what is in there and adjust the diet accordingly

Each hen molts according to her own body's schedule and in their own way. Anywhere from 16 to 19 months is about right for their first adult molt. Some hens seem to drop all their feathers at once, seemingly overnight. Others molt so gradually it's almost unnoticable. The normal progression of the molt is from the head back; with the tailfeathers being the last to go and the last to grow back in. I have one old hen that never stops laying during her molts and that's very hard on her body. She takes the longest to complete a molt because her body resources are being overtaxed by trying to do two things at once.

Yes it's normal that they all stop laying pretty much all at once. Same goes for when a hen goes broody. It's like an epidemic with broody hens. You find one broody hen in the nestbox and the next thing you know everyone gets the idea that hatching chicks is a great idea. You end up with a coop full of growling, snapping, irritable hens. :roll:

Keep an eye on your cheeky girl that her pecking doesn't go far. There are ways to cure her of her naughtiness if necessary.