Could the heat stop my chickens from laying?

[kathyd]

Hi. Of my 8 birds (7 currently in lay), 4 seem to have stopped laying eggs over the past several days. This ties in roughly with when we kicked them out of the coop to creocote it. Prior to that we'd removed it for a day to treat it with something else, so the coop-layers had to find an alternative space, but seemed to go back to normal afterwards.

2 of them still lay in their usual boxes (not the coop), but I've had nothing from the others except one I found under a bush in their run. I've checked the other bushes but not found anything.

Is it possible the hot weather is putting them off, or is it more likely some other problem?

*confused*

[Nicos]

Mine have slowed down quite a bit too and we too put that down to the hot weather- but after finding only one egg for a couple of days we did a thorough hunt under,over,behind,on top of and came up with a hidden clutch of 10 eggs!

Quite a few of our birds have started moulting - yours may be doing that perhaps?...they always slow down or stop when they moult.
Of course they may just feel upset that their normal 'home' has changed and need a bit of time to settle down again.

[kathyd]

Hi Nicos

I suppose I'd better don gauntlets and boots then, and have a more thorough check amongst the jungle which their 'shrubbery' area has become at the moment! Little monsters.

There are a few feathers around, but nothing startling - one is certainly moulting, but she's the one who's also been rolling her occasional egg out of wherever she's laid it, making a hole in it in the process and then abandoning it... but at least she's been laying in fairly 'normal' places until now! They mostly wait until the weather becomes freezing cold before they start moulting in earnest, in that logical chickeny way they have.

I'll let you know if I find the EU egg mountain anyway . Thx

[roitelet]

My Cayennes lay all the year round but the thing that slows them down is HEAT and we have plenty of that, 34.2C atm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kathyd]

My Cayennes lay all the year round but the thing that slows them down is HEAT and we have plenty of that, 34.2C atm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cayennes eh? I thought that was a hot pepper.. quite appropriate at the moment in fact! I've just put our max / min thermometer outside under the tunnel thing we sit under in the 'shade', and it's currently reading 36 deg..! And this is Brittany, not even in the south! Poor birds are walking around with their wings out and their beaks open wishing they were ducks and could swim in the pond. However.. it's made me think (yes, even in this heat) - I've built a substitute nest box in the garden! In the shade under the fruit trees,a frame covered with black netting rather than closed in, and a box of straw inside so it's a bit familiar. I live in hope. Of course it's going to rain now and with thunderstorms, so it'll all get soggy and blow away, but at least I've tried .