I’ve tried everything but haven’t got a single egg in forever.

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

So I had very good layers that from the time I got my first egg in September of 2023 until this summer they never stopped but once it hit may they laid for a week and then rarely laid until July which they laid for most of the month laying over 2 1/2 dozen and laid a week in September and maybe half a week in Oct and haven’t laid since. I feed game bird feed until then and I’ve decided to try later feed and nothing but last winter they laid all winter in freezing weather. Here’s some photos and dates attached.

7/20/24

1/26/24

12/27/23
Here is my flock breeds and ages

Chickens:


1 Barred Plymouth Rock hen, laying, Sarah, 85 weeks old,


1 Dominque hen, laying, Winifred, 85 weeks


1 Easter Egger hen, laying, Jelly Bean, 81 weeks old


1 Black copper Maran Hen, laying, Chungus, 88 weeks old


1 Buff Orpington Hen, laying, Mrs. Priss, 85 weeks





2nd GEN





1 Lavender x Buff Orpington Rooster, mating, Red, 42 weeks old


1 maran mix pullet, not laying, Chimkin, 39 weeks


1 maran lavender Orpington mix pullet, not laying, Dottie, 42 weeks


2 olive egger pullets, not laying, Crow and Olive, 34 weeks


1 barred rock mix cockerel, not mating, Rodrigo, 34 weeks





Mystery chickens





1 black and brown Brahma mix pullet, not laying, Fredithy, 31 weeks


1 OEGB mix pullet, not laying, Cinnamon, 31 weeks








Free ranging Tic and rodent patrol





1 brown leghorn, mating, Pepè Le pew, 88 weeks


1 maran mix cockerel, mating, Shiner, 42 weeks


2 lavender guineas 1 hen 1 possible Guinea cock, not mature, Smoky and Ash, 29 weeks


2 pearl guinea hens, not mature, Gramm and Cracker, 29 weeks


1 white guinea possible Guinea cock, not mature, MarshMallow, 29 weeks

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Free ranging

Have you looked for hidden nests since they free range?

 

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

Have you looked for hidden nests since they free range?

Have you looked for hidden nests since they free range?

the guineas don’t free range yet and the other two are cockerels, currently all my hens are in a run

 

[BigBlueHen53]

My math skills are not great. How old are these hens in months or years? 88 weeks is Greek to me. I can't even figure out how to convert that into months or years... wait. There are 52 weeks in a year. So a chicken 88 weeks old is somewhere over a year old. But beyond that ...

 

[NatJ]

So I had very good layers that from the time I got my first egg in September of 2023 until this summer they never stopped but once it hit may they laid for a week and then rarely laid until July which they laid for most of the month laying over 2 1/2 dozen and laid a week in September and maybe half a week in Oct and haven’t laid since. I feed game bird feed until then and I’ve decided to try later feed and nothing but last winter they laid all winter in freezing weather.

So they were hatched in 2023, and started laying that fall.
They kept laying through the winter and spring and summer,
and now in the fall of 2024 they stopped laying?

They are probably molting. Adult chickens usually do that in the fall. Molting is when they lose their old feathers and grow new ones. Some chickens get almost bald and then grow new feathers, while other chickens do just a few feathers at a time so it takes longer but they never look bare.

After they finish molting, they may start laying again right away, or they may wait until the days get longer again in the spring. Different birds may start laying at different times.

Layer feed will probably not make them start laying any sooner than any other feed. The only special thing about layer feed is the amount of calcium (about 3 times what is in other feed). Hens do need extra calcium to lay eggs, but if they run short of calcium they lay eggs with thin or weak shells. Lack of calcium will usually not make the hens stop laying. Hens that are laying can get the extra calcium from layer feed or from a separate dish of oyster shell or from various other sources. If the eggshells were fine before they quit laying, then calcium is not the problem.

 

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

My math skills are not great. How old are these hens in months or years? 88 weeks is Greek to me. I can't even figure out how to convert that into months or years... wait. There are 52 weeks in a year. So a chicken 88 weeks old is somewhere over a year old. But beyond that ...

88 weeks = 1 year 8 months and only one hen is that old and she’s my oldest

 

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

So they were hatched in 2023, and started laying that fall.
They kept laying through the winter and spring and summer,
and now in the fall of 2024 they stopped laying?

They are probably molting. Adult chickens usually do that in the fall. Molting is when they lose their old feathers and grow new ones. Some chickens get almost bald and then grow new feathers, while other chickens do just a few feathers at a time so it takes longer but they never look bare.

After they finish molting, they may start laying again right away, or they may wait until the days get longer again in the spring. Different birds may start laying at different times.

Layer feed will probably not make them start laying any sooner than any other feed. The only special thing about layer feed is the amount of calcium (about 3 times what is in other feed). Hens do need extra calcium to lay eggs, but if they run short of calcium they lay eggs with thin or weak shells. Lack of calcium will usually not make the hens stop laying. Hens that are laying can get the extra calcium from layer feed or from a separate dish of oyster shell or from various other sources. If the eggshells were fine before they quit laying, then calcium is not the problem.

They’ve always had nice strong shells, and I’ve never seen any of them lose a single feather

 

[NatJ]

They’ve always had nice strong shells,

In that case I would not worry about the calcium. The layer feed will not help anything about the situation, but probably will not hurt either. I would go back to the other feed the next time you need to buy more.

and I’ve never seen any of them lose a single feather

They are almost guaranteed to molt this fall/winter. They will almost certainly stop laying eggs while it happens.

Since this about the right time of year for molting, and they have stopped laying eggs, I think they are probably molting.

Try picking up a few and looking them over carefully. Part the feathers and look down by the skin: are there pinfeathers visible? Spread out a wing and look at the flight feathers: are there gaps or uneven places, from a feather falling out and another being partly regrown? I think you will probably find signs like that on at least some of them.

Chickens can lose a surprisingly large amount of feathers without looking bare, and without any being obvious in the pen. Sometimes they eat the feathers that fall out, other times the feathers get blown away in the wind or worked into the bedding. Threads about molting are usually about the chickens that show it most obviously by being almost bare and having lots of feathers lying around the pen, but many chickens do molt without it being obvious. Chicks molt at least 3 times as they grow, before they have their adult feathers, but it's not usually obvious because they do it gradually so they are never bare-- many adult chickens do that for their fall molt too.

If they are molting, you don't need to change anything, just wait for them to finish. If they are not molting, they should at some point, but there might be some other problem as well. If they have another problem, obviously you will want to identify it and solve it, but I think molting is still the most likely explanation for your current lack of eggs.

 

[NatJ]

...very good layers that from the time I got my first egg in September of 2023 until this summer they never stopped but once it hit may they laid for a week and then rarely laid until July which they laid for most of the month laying over 2 1/2 dozen and laid a week in September and maybe half a week in Oct and haven’t laid since.

I just re-read the first post and I think I took it wrong at first. So you're saying they did NOT lay well during the summer either?

In summertime, look for hidden nests (hens laying but you not getting the eggs) and for broody hens (they don't lay while broody, and when they quit being broody it still takes them a while to get back to laying).

In fall, molting is the most common cause of hens failing to lay eggs.

When you are not getting eggs, sometimes one cause is followed by another cause, which stacks up to make a long time with no eggs. By now, there's a good chance they are molting, but it might just be the short days stopping them laying. If the day length is the issue, they will start again after days get longer. If you give them artificial light to make the days seem longer, it may be 4-6 weeks for them to actually start laying again, because of how long it takes for their bodies to transition from a not-laying to a laying condition.

 

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

I just re-read the first post and I think I took it wrong at first. So you're saying they did NOT lay well during the summer either?

In summertime, look for hidden nests (hens laying but you not getting the eggs) and for broody hens (they don't lay while broody, and when they quit being broody it still takes them a while to get back to laying).

In fall, molting is the most common cause of hens failing to lay eggs.

When you are not getting eggs, sometimes one cause is followed by another cause, which stacks up to make a long time with no eggs. By now, there's a good chance they are molting, but it might just be the short days stopping them laying. If the day length is the issue, they will start again after days get longer. If you give them artificial light to make the days seem longer, it may be 4-6 weeks for them to actually start laying again, because of how long it takes for their bodies to transition from a not-laying to a laying condition.

They did NOT lay over the summer other than July but the heat could have been a problem, here in SE OK it gets to be 110 F/44 C in summer and as low as -15 F/-26 C in winter which even in the negatives last winter I was getting eggs