Non-laying hens

[vjg13]

We have 3 hens. The oldest is about two and a half and hasn't laid for about 2 months before then she was very regularly. She has been wormed and is still moulting slightly. Will she start agin or is she in the chicken menopause!?

We got the next two a few months ago at POL. the slightly older one lays almost every day but the other is a Sussex white hybrid and is now about 24 weeks but still shows no signs of laying?

TIA

I am wondering if you have one of the commercial breeds - such as black rocks? It has been my experience that these hens will lay a lot of eggs in their first two years and then stop laying completely, whereas hybrids and pure breed hens tend to reach POL a little later (24 weeks in not unusual), lay slightly fewer eggs over the course of a year - say one every two or three days, but lay throughout their lives. Some of our pure breed hens and hybrids are now five years old and are each still giving us a couple of eggs a week. Not very cost effective I know, but in our case we keep them as pets and the eggs we do get are lovely. I hope this helps.

I'd agree with nan - my two commercial hybrids had a moult at 2 1/2 and didn't lay again. They had perfectly happy lives before needing a final trip to the vet with their last illnesses at around 3.

If she's moulting she won't lay until after she's feathered up. Give her some well rinsed tuna and perhaps put a product such as 'lifeguard' in her drinking water.

As with your sussex, it may just be that she'll develop later. We're waiting for our 3 new purebreeds, which include a light sussex, to come into lay - they're 20 weeks so I'm not expecting anything yet but am enjoying the development of red faces with hope!

Laying frequency does depend on the breed of hen. My purebreed legbar lays blue shelled eggs for 6 out of 7 days (she's in her first year though), whereas the cochin lays 2 or 3 eggs per week. The sussex should lay well too, apart from over her winter moult break. I'm looking forwards to my araucana coming into lay as she'll do green shelled eggs!

Thanks for your replies. You are spot, on she is a black rock hybrid and has always laid very well. We are still happy to have her as a pet.

My husband remains convinced that our sussex white is a non-egg laying mutant!