I finally caught why my hens stopped laying in July

I kept reading about heat stress and checked shade and water daily, but egg production still tanked. Turned out I was leaving the coop door open at night and raccoon stress had them spooked bad. Has anyone else had a predator scare mess with laying without any actual attack happening?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordan1341mo ago

Did you notice anything else different about their behavior before you figured out the raccoon thing? I had a similar situation where my girls stopped laying for almost two weeks and I was going crazy checking everything. Turned out a stray dog had been coming around at night and they were all stressed out even though it never got into the coop. They didn't scream or anything, just stopped laying and were super quiet and watchful during the day. It's wild how sensitive they are to stuff like that.

gavinperez1mo ago

@jordan134 same thing happened to me last year. My silkies just completely shut down for like ten days and I couldn't figure it out until I found owl feathers out by their run one morning. No attack or anything either, just having a predator hang around at night was enough to freak them out.