Unfortunately, after two months of good production, Janice suddenly stopped laying. Perhaps she was put off by the shortening of the days, although that never bothered any of my other chickens. My older Black sex-link hen, Tina, kept laying for a while, but then she started molting. This is Tina's second molt, so I think her egg-laying days may be over.
With Tina out of commission, that meant we had five chickens in the coop and zero (ZERO!) layers. Sigh. This situation went on for about a month, with no eggs from the younger girls, despite both treats of squash guts and chard stems and threats about chicken soup. Then, happily, Betty, the all-white Easter Egger, stepped up.
Dakota found a large, light green egg in the nesting box about three weeks ago, and Betty has been a good little layer ever since.
We're getting about five eggs a week from Betty, which is nice, although I really wish at least one more hen would lay. Now that the weather has turned cold, it's baking season, and I've had to buy eggs at the store so we have enough to use in homemade brownies, cookies and cakes.
Ugh. That would be disappointing for sure. I'm still learning about chickens (and don't even have any yet); but I hope they start laying better for you soon!
Do your chickens free range? Usually when my hens seem to stop laying it is because they are hiding their eggs and suddenly I will stumble on a huge cache. If I don't get fresh straw in the nest boxes they will find their own favorite spot and where one goes, the others will follow.
Don't you just hate buying eggs when you have hens? All three of ours are molting. No eggs in weeks. :-(
I'm going on month 3 of no eggs. Recently our Australorp starting laying again about every other day or so. I have to say it is kind of a relief to know it's not just me! There was a move and molting so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.
hilarious "threats about chicken soup"