Hello,

One of my young chickens, Scully (Fenning Black) started laying about 3 or 4 weeks ago. Was laying lovely, thick shelled little eggs for about a week or so. We were getting one ever other day but have since then had none. The last 2 weeks, she seems fine, same as before but just had nothing from her.

My other chicken (same age) hasn't even started laying yet but have so far just put it down to her being a 'late bloomer'.

Can anyone think of a reason for this?

Any advice would be great.

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Dont know anything about chickens! Other then if they are free range they do stop laying when its cold! The woman over from me sells eggs! she only managed one box today out of 44 hens!

dunno if Im right!! just thought I would bump your thread for you!
DT

Thanks. We had the first frost the other week and it is feeling generally a bit colder so it could be that.

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most of ours have stopped laying...they also need a certain amount of daylight too, so it could be because the daylight is getting less

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Hiya It's molting time so they will stop laying, it could be for some time. Even if they don't actually molt properly (which some may not, depending on their background history) they will still stop laying.
Perfectly normal. You may get the odd egg here and there.
zo
x

Thanks for the info. How long does it last and will they start laying again after or will it be too cold for most of the winter?

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probably start again in feb

Its nothing to do with temperature, its daylight. Hens need a minimum of 9-10 hours light to make them lay.

The moult should have finished by now, if you are in the UK that is.

If the hens are well feathered, young and healthy you can bring them into lay again by providing extra light in the hen house but this has to be done very carefully. A low wattage buulb the old 40 w is ideal, set on a timer to go off at 6am ave alwasy meant that we have eggs within the week.

DO NOT set extra lighting at the end of the day as it is far colder and then suddenly will go dark. Only use extra light in the morning when the hens are already safely on their perch.

You will need to feed them extra for the cold weather. Laying rations all winter.

Hens are born with a certain number of eggs already inside them, once this amount have been laid the hen will never lay again, so for instance farmed hens will have extra lighting to get them to lay for as long as possible.