It has happened to me. I got all new stock (32 chickens) last spring & they started laying on schedule. They laid right up until the freeze at Christmas. Two days before the freeze my car broke down at TSC where I was getting extra bedding for my chickens. Had a friend come work on my car in TSC parking lot. Took a couple of hours to trace a broken wire to my ECM (computer). Had started storming so I went back in to TSC and purchased a couple of bags of their Puritan Pride laying crumbles to get me thru the freeze since I didn’t have time to get to my normal feed/seed store before they closed. My chickens have not laid ONE EGG since I fed them that feed. Figured it may have been the extreme frigid temps we had (VERY unusual for my area to get that cold-single digit wind chills in coastal AL). Warmed back up but chickens still weren’t laying. NONE-ZERO-ZILCH! Got their normal feed when I heard the rumors of this feed debacle and started it about 1.5 weeks ago. Not sure how long it takes them to start laying again but hopefully soon. Plan to go back tomorrow to get some higher protein (Game Bird) feed to see if that will jump-start them back to laying. I also had covered their coop with a huge trucker tarp for that Christmas Freeze that I haven’t been able to remove so their area is a bit darker than usual, too. They are getting some sunlight on one end that I rolled the tarp up so I could access the entrance gate. So they may not be getting enough sunlight to add to the equation. Didn’t want to remove that huge heavy trucker tarp until I knew ALL this crazy cold weather was gone for the year. Had heard we could have another Arctic Blast in the next couple of weeks so was holding off removing it. I know they were laying right before & during the freeze because my broody hen started sitting on a clutch of 18 eggs & I had over a dozen to freeze. We shall see what the next few days bring when I get the higher protein feed & remove the tarp.
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