OK, so, we've got 23 chickens (20 hens, 3 Roosters) and all of them - except 1 - have abruptly stopped laying eggs a week after we introduced 3 new birds (former show-birds, what a shock for them!).

No changes to food, no changes to bedding, plenty of calcium, good water...nothing but these three new birds - who have also stopped laying.

Suggestions?

get some 11 herbs and spices and... ;-)

serious note, did you take the new birds out of the coop for a couple days and see if that did anything?

I think that's going to need to be the next step, unfortunately. I'd really rather not have to deal with the expense and time of a new coop for them, and in reading up, if they are sick, I'm not even going to be able eat them....ARGH!!

We love having chickens...

1. Has the weather there suddenly changed?
2. Are the new chickens the same breed as the original chickens? Chickens can be very...racist.

-Blast

I have several chickens.

When I moved them to their new quarters I didn't get any eggs for a month.

You can repost your inquiry here. They are very helpful there. I usually hang out in the laws and ordinances subforum because I'm an evil scofflaw.

This may or may not have anything to do with anything (as I've never personally owned chickens, though we did have two ducks ), but I remember being told when I was younger that chickens go through something in the fall season where they may stop laying eggs for a while. The term molting comes to mind, but I have no idea if that's right or not.

Again, no idea how relevant that is, but I thought I would throw it out there in case (as it is fall).

So you need more pots. "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage – Herbert Hoover"

Chickens stop laying due to stress. That stress can be due to molting (mine are molting now), change, cold, not enough protein to cope with the cold, lack of water (frozen water source).

But the biggie this time of year is that there is less light. Laying hens usually need 16 hours of light every day. Light intensity also is a factor.

Bucks County, PA, is at latitude 40.27, and according to this chart (Hours of Daylight by Latitude - http://encarta.msn.com/media_701500905/hours_of_daylight_by_latitude.html), it looks like you are getting about 11.5 hours of sunlight at this time of year. You're about five hours short of an egg.

Chicken people say you have two choices: leave the girls to natural light and give them a rest, or give them additional light in their coop, starting with 12 hours and increasing to 16 hours (and it has to be bright enough during those 16 hours). A timer makes it much easier. Be sure to overlap added light with natural light. Chickies are easily confused.

Some breeds are more sensitive to light deprivation that others. My Buff Orpingtons are supposed to be pretty good, but here at 46.8186 latitude, they don't lay in winter, and they stop in September.

Sue

we have had chickens for years - we have light on a timer and all that...need to check overlap w/natural light

I'm no expert, but I've heard that the ideal hen:rooster ratio is 10:1. If there are too many roosters, the "odd man out" might be harrassing the hens or somehow his mere "loser" presence might be detering the hens from laying.
I am of course suggesting that you eat one of the roosters and see what happens. JMO
On the other hand, too many hens can disturb the pecking order just as easily.