]Fiona[

I have one like this - a white star - not a single egg for 3-4 months. She's only just turned 1 year. Healthy, no symptoms. I have checked the whole list of "what to do if your hen isn't laying blah blah". Mine visits the nest box too, gets me all hopeful....then......nothing! Annoying isn't it?

My White Star turned one year old in the late spring, and has not laid for 3-4 months. My other two hens lay fine (ranger and blacktail) She is: Wormed (Flubenvet) Treated for lice (Diatom) Normal behaviour, quite perky, although she sits on the nest for 20 mins in the morning then gets up (no egg) Does not seem poorly Does not seem egg bound as she is quite soft in that area Eats smallholder pellets and mixed shell/grit, not much free ranging /treats She weighs 1.9kg She is not moulting The other two hens lay fine so I presume nothing is lacking in the diet I have gone down the whole list of what could be causing it but can't find a thing - have I missed something? Could she have just finished laying at such a young age? Thanks

I had a similar issue - went round the houses with sprays, diet, boredom busters etc etc - don't waste your money. Looks like feather pecking - If you think you've identified the chook doing the damage, fit a bumper bit.

....oh and I had to resort to a bumper bit (on the bully). That was the only thing that worked to stop her pecking/bullying. Also I feed the victim bird her treats "in private" so that she doesn't get hassled. It is a real nuisance.

From my experience, a hen without an entire beak is less able to to defend herself. She can't give a "buzz off" peck back to the other chooks. Also like you say she will likely have more trouble eating. I have two Omlet chooks - one with an entire beak and one with some beak missing, which has not regrown, and has caused some suffering for the poor hen.

When I received my two hens in July, the gingernut had a freshly mutilated ...erm I mean "trimmed" beak (top beak half a centimetre shorter than bottom beak). I was gutted but didnt say anything, as I wanted to see what happened, maybe it grew back etc....it didnt. From my research, Organic Standards do not permit trimming except under exceptional circumstances. Can anyone explain how Omlet can supply such a hen to customers who, naturally, are keen on animal welfare.? I am interested to know what these 'exceptional circumstances' would have been in a barely 17 wk old hen? The pepperpot which I got at the same time is not beak-trimmed and with her large pointy beak frequently attacks the gingernut. The gingernut has been placed at a severe disadvantage by having her beak trimmed. She has no means of defence. I am about to fit a bumper bit in the hope this will help. Also the trimmed gingernut cannot forage anywhere near as effectively as pepperpot. If she finds a juicy morsel, by the time she has hopelessly pecked at it trying to lift it from the ground, the pepperpot has come along and swiped it. I am convinced that the dynamic between these two birds would be very different if one was not trimmed. I have read that others have also received a beak-trimmed hen, so this does not appear to be a one - off. Comments appreciated.

Thanks so much for your replies and advice. My Miss Pepperpot did start laying again after 2.5 weeks, now my Gingernut is having a rest from laying - just after I gave away some eggs too, now running low..

I got one Pepperpot and one Gingernut at the beginning of July this year and they both started laying after a week. After about 2 weeks of laying Miss Pepperpot stopped - she has not layed for 10 days now! Have done a health check - she seems fine apart from a slight sniffle. Could a sniffle stop her laying? I have not wormed either of them yet as they surely were wormed just before I got them. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Standard letter, don't worry about. Chances anything serious will happen about it are virtually zilch. This is from my own experience about how Councils handle noise complaints. It has to be VERY bad for action to be taken.