My chickens stopped laying eggs. I live in Phoenix, Arizona. Is it just too hot for them to nest?

Question

They were laying eggs before, but they wont since summer started. I took all the roosters out and cleaned out their nesting boxes. But they still refuse to lay eggs. They are all mature. I was thinking that it maybe just too hot for them to lay eggs. You know, Arizona gets over 115F (46C) degrees and all.

Answer 1

Put the rooosters back.

Answer 2

When I lived in Tucson during the 1980-1990s an egg could be fried upon the driveway. Maybe your chickens have resigned to the fact, naturally, that laying the eggs is not the right thing to do for their instinctual plans to nurture them.

Answer 3

It is quite possible that the heat is making them slack off of laying.

  Do you feed your chickens Layer Crumbles?  This helps to promote laying and it helps to replentish the minerals/vitamins that are lost during laying season.

  It is possible that the absence of the rooster could make the difference but I kinda doubt it. . . hens lay anyway without having a rooster around but the change may have "shook" them up.

  What kind of distruptions do you have around them. . . barking dogs,kids,other new animals?  Chickens can stress due to things that can scare them or excite them.

  Consider the fact that they may be laying and something is getting the eggs. . . snakes,skunks,possums,rats etc.

Answer 4

I would put the rooster back and see what happens.My guess is they will breed right away if your rooster is anything like mine.Maybe they just didnt like loosing their mate.Also did you change the type of litter that your using in their nest boxes?Mine refused to lay once i started using wood chips so i swithed back over to straw and they started laying again.Good luck!