Anyone know abut chickens?

Boxers

Boxers

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At easter we got 4 chickens - just for the eggs and for pets.

THey all 4 laid eggs regularly. We usually got 3 eggs per day.

We have 2 Brahmas and 2 marans. 2 lay 'normal' pale eggs and 2 lay very dark brown eggs.

About 8 weeks ago one of the brahmas went broody and took to the henhouse and stopped laying, about 2 weeks after that the other brahma did the same. We always took away any eggs and regularly got the hens out of the house so that they would feed and drink.

So 8 weeks on and the 2 brahmas are out and about but they are not laying. So they have not laid now for about 6-8 weeks.

Any ideas anyone?
 
Sunday lunch?
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Sorry don't know anything about chucks. Maybe they are too old to lay any more.
 
We have chickens, but I rarely have anything to do with them, but I asked OH as he is the chicken keeper
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we have around 20 chickens.

He said there can be varied reasons, including age as sugested by matilda
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, as they lay most eggs in the first year of life then less and less with age, also lack of calcium, which they get from the likes of layers pellets, or poor condition or lack of weight, something disturbing them at some stage.

I have noticed OH always leaves one egg to encourage them to go back to lay when he collects his eggs, not sure if that helps, but we have a stupid amount of eggs, I give them away left right and center
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Ours come in and out of lay as they please..... I suppose that its their way of regenerating some degree of condition as egg production is very taxing on the body.

It could also be that they are going to go into a moult.

Assuming you feed layers pellets and they are healthy (worms, mites treated etc) then they will eventually lay again.

Mine have started and stopped each year, but always start again
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make sure you are feeding the big sacks of oyster shell/grit that you can buy from the feed store, its essential for them to for the egg shell. Also a few tips
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if you feed kitchen scraps, bread treat, corn ect, allways feed them in the afternoon, that way they will eat the layers pellets that encourage them to lay in the morning not just scraps and corn ect. Also you can take the empty shells once you have eaten the eggs, bake them in the oven for severall hours ( i put them in the bottom of the oven when cooking other food) once fully dry you can crunch them up feed them to them again - it does the same job as the grit. Other ways to encourage laying are the china egg / leaving some eggs in as metioned in a earlier post and restricting the area they roam over if free range as they can forget their purpose! Some chickens just take longer to come back into lay than others!
 
They were only 6 months old when we got them at Easter - so less than a year old now.

We have checked for mites and can find none.

They have layers pellets, grit and oyster shell and water. We give them a scoop of corn and some veg in the afternoon/early evening.

Guess we will just have to wait for them to decide to lay again!
 
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