Mumsnet Talk

We got 2 light sussex point of lay chickens in the spring. All was good until mid-August, when first one, and then in September the other, stopped laying.

At first I thought it was the time of year, or that they were moulting, but the moulting has now stopped. Is it now too late in the year for them to start laying again? My friend said that her chickens lay all through the winter (just a little less frequently).

Some of our girls lay intermittantly in the winter - couple of eggs a week but most do not. it is to do with the amount of light in the day so probably they wont start laying again until the spring. i know of a few people whose girls lay right through the year but not many and not sure how they do it.

Ours have stopped laying too - about a month ago. I am putting it down to the seasons and light.

Are they having enough protein? Usually they stop laying if they don't have enough protein (so in a moult they use most of it on growing feathers not on protein).

Hybrid breeds tend to lay all year round, and are also better layers than the pedigree breeds.

What are you feeding them?

Do your chickens free-range? I thought mine had stopped laying until I discovered a huge pile of eggs deep in the bamboo clump in our garden! They still sneak off to odd places - a big old plant pot is a favourite of one of mine.

Thanks all.

They mostly have layers pellets, with a mash of breakfast leftovers in the morning. I think I have some corn somewhere - would that be more protein-rich?

TBH I am not surprised that they are not laying now, but I WAS surprised that they had both stopped by September (having only started laying in April!).

Sorry - they have quite a large enclosure and I think I've checked everywhere!

Maybe switched them to corn for a couple of weeks then back onto the layers. Sometimes it does nom harm to 'kick start' the system again. Layers should be higher protein content than pure corn, but switching does work when they all stop laying.

It does seem quick for them to stop laying, mine lay pretty much all year round, less proliferically in the winter, but they still keep going. The ducks on the other hand lay April - August (typical breeding season).

Thanks horseylady - it's worth a go, especially as I already have a bag of corn in the shed.

I used to have Sussex, kept them for years, and they always stopped laying for the winter - I've been totally gobsmacked by the ex batt hybrids I now have who lay all year round. It's a recent development in hybrid breeding - they used to have to use intensive lighting systems to fool their bodies into thinking it was still laying season. now they've just bred birds that carry on laying.