Healthy chicken not laying.

[sylvev]

Hi
One of our hens ,Layla, a speckeldy, has stopped laying, apart from producing a marble-sized egg at the weekend! She is eating, free-ranging with the others as usual and seems quite happy. She goes into the nest to lay, but rarely does. Up to a couple of months ago she was laying daily. She does have a tendncy towards broodiness, but is not broody at the moment. Any ideas?

Chickens won't lay every day and it's only Battery hens that are forced to lay about 350 days a year, normal hens will only lay about 200-250 I think (I might of got that wrong but it's about that number I think). So I wouldn't worry about it at the moment but if you think she's uncomfortable then she might be egg bound.

Ours have slowed down at the moment on laying and we're only getting about 6 eggs a day from 12 hens where as 2 weeks ago we were getting about 10 eggs a day from 12 hens.

Ours have slowed down a lot too. When did she start laying?

Keep an eye on her, if she is egg bound it can cause a prolapse and they go down hill very quickly. Keep an eye out for blood in her poohs or around her vent.

She may have just reached the end of her cycle, the little egg suggests this too.

Ours have slowed down too! Maybe it is a weather thing who knows!

I've heard to cut down on treats and feed just mash/pellets chook food of choice to make sure she has all the nutrients she needs in case of deficiency. Reckon ours may be having too many allotment scraps at the mo but seem very happy and don't mind having fewer eggs.

The amount per year per bird is variety dependent. We have ex batts and I'd say they will lay 3-320 a year still and they free range now. If you look up different varieties they vary form 100 per year up to 350.

ours have slowed down...one is v broody so I've been shutting the coops (there are 2 in the run) during the day to try and put her off, hasn't worked yet AND the others seem to have given up