Mrs

[littlehenny]

We have three girls in an Eglu, two and a and have now had them just over 2 years. We bought them at POL from Omlet and they have laid pretty well all the time we've had them. Initially it was 3 eggs a day but last year this went down to 1-2 eggs a day. However, since Easter all three have suddenly stopped laying. Nothing at all except a couple of softies. I have done everything I can think of: worming (Flubunvet) limestone flour, tonic in their water, extra grit, codliver oil (I'm spending a fortune and not getting any reward - we really miss their eggs!) I am now thinking that this is it - they have just come to the end of their laying life. I thought I'd get another couple of years, but now I'm facing the prospect of either keeping them and accepting that we won't get any more eggs from them or rehoming them and replacing with 3 more POL. Does anyone have any advice?

[jimnpaula]

Maybe they're all having a moult? Can you see any new feathers coming through? They will go off lay for 4 to 6 weeks while they regrow - mine are looking a bit scruffy at the moment and eggs vary at 4 to 5 from seven hens - haven't had 7 for ages.

 

P

[Olly]

Sorry to say it, but I think they may have just run out of steam - Omlet hens are very reliable layers, but they don't go on for ever and I think at 2 years + they may have hit the 'hennopause'. It does vary from hen to hen, and certainly from breed to breed, but if you've tried all the things you have listed then that would be my guess.

[Reikiranf]

I had the same thing last year with my Omlet girls, they laid fantastically well for the first year but then it tailed off to the extent that over the summer the number of eggs I got per month rarely made it into double figures & I had to buy eggs, I did everything I could think of to no avail Sadly I lost Yum Yum & Mimi so I now have two new girls keeping Lulu company and at the weekend I had my first 2 egg day for what must be the best part of a year. Try to view your girls as pets with the eggs being a bonus, I was frustrated by the lack of eggs but the girls are so entertaining that I wouldn't part with them for anything. Perhaps they are just having a rest, our Lulu started laying 3-5 eggs a week after losing her friends having hardly laid for months