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So, I have three Bovans Nera hens who pretty much gave up laying last winter. I reckon I've managed a dozen eggs out of them all year. I would occasionally get a really weird egg that wasn't edible and got chucked, and a few eggs that were fine.

So, I decided to get new hens that would lay, and got 3 Rhode Island Reds and a cockerel.

All of a sudden, the old hens are laying again! I collected 4 eggs yesterday and just took 3 out today.

Now, their demeanour has been totally different since the introduction of the Big Fella, and they appear much happier than before. Would this have put them back in lay? Have their reproductive hormones kicked back in?

The new hens are too small to lay just yet, and they also don't have access to the coop where the eggs are arriving.

I changed their food from layers pellets to mixed grain - would this have done it?

I'm amazed, pleased, and kinda worried about how many eggs I'm gonna have once the new girls come into lay as well!

Hi PD, It's the cockerel, he is stimulating them to lay

So you're telling me I've got a coop full of horny hens? (Am I allowed to say that? ) Good grief - the poor chap will be exhausted.

We were recently given 10 ex-battery hens and 4 bantys apparently we were really lucky because they produced 4 eggs the day after we got them - but thats all they seemed to lay for a couple of weeks. I gave the girls a stern talking to and threatened them with the stew pot - worked a treat - now we average 9 eggs per day!

Be wary about changing off the layers pellets. Modern layers have generally been bred and selected because they do well on commercial feeds. Over time, successive generations have become more dependent on layer pellets and switching to all or mainly grains without the protein, vitamins and minerals can have a dramatic effect on both egg production and health of your birds.

We've noticed this with our hens - the ISA Browns definitely need the layer's pellets or their egg shells start thinning and they drop from an egg a day to an egg every other day. They also lose condition fast. While they do prefer barley and oats, a feed of layers pellets in the morning keeps them in good shape.

Most of the Scots Greys on the other hand, particularly those from non-show flocks, thrive on oats, barley, grass and copious worms, slugs and bugs. They tend to avoid the morning feed of layers pellets, leaving them to the ISA Browns and go foraging until the afternoon feed of barley and oats.

Also, I doubt that the cockerel prompted them to start laying again! Commercial layers never meet a cockerel and lay like clockwork for their production lifespan.

When you say that the Bovans Neras gave up laying, how older were they and how long had they been laying for? Commercial layers usually start laying around 19 weeks (24-35 for rare breeds, with most of our Scots Greys going over 30 weeks) and have laid out by 14 months old.

Commercial layers can and do come back into lay after their first moult, but after that their laying is very erratic.

Also, when considering laying probems you have to look at all the factors:

• breed,
  strain,
  feed,
  location (more darkness and colder, wetter winters mean longer interruptions to laying),
  weather (a continued cold and wet spell well into spring will often hold things up; an early warm spell can get them going earlier),
  water (this is very important, eggs contain a lot of water so make sure all birds have plenty of access to clean, fresh water and that the boss hens aren't keeping the water to themselves).

After that lot, you also have to bear in mind that disease and stress can also stop laying.

And finally, hens sometimes just stop laying because they can!

Still, yours are back in lay and that's the main thing.

Well, this is a subject that occupies my mind a lot.

I got my Bovens Nera from the folk we bought the house from in Aug 2005. They said they were 'about a year old' but my neighbours reckon it was closer to two. I had eggs from them every day until the weather turned dark and then they were intermittant. When we had that really bad snow in March, they went off altogether - they were pretty much snowed into the coop and I don't do the 'light in the coop to keep them laying' thing. After that, they haven't laid more than an egg a week between them, often less than that.

We used to have 4 bovans nera, and one cast it's vent. We had to have it destroyed because it was beyond help and very distressed. I had been trying to find a reason why they hadn't laid for such a long time and were no longer in moult, and someone suggested worming them. They still didn't lay, although their rear ends cleared up nicely. I did worm again just before the new hens arrived.

I don't know. They haven't laid for a good 6 months, not regularly for longer than that, and now all of a sudden - they're off again.

It is interesting what you say about the feed. I have been mixing the pellets and the grain because I had a load of pellets left and didnt want them to go to waste. They definately like the grain more, but I shall take your advice and continue to offer both.

I'm feeding the new hens (not old enough to be in lay yet) with the same grain but not the pellets. Do you think I should offer them that, or something else?

Thank you so much for your advice - you can look at all the books you like but there is nothing that takes the place of experience.