Someone dumped dogs in our neighborhood in May and they broke into our chicken tractors at night and killed two and a half flocks of birds (hatched in 2021 and 2023-24). We still have two other tractors with birds (an older flock hatched in 2019 and one with a dozen Easter eggers hatched in 2022) but ever since the attack months ago, all of the birds have stopped laying.

I understand they were traumatized (and that the older girls are pretty darn old), but we’re buying and feeding them crumbles, scratch grains, and treats, and giving them kitchen scraps, then we’re having to go to the store and buy cartons of eggs at $8-12 a carton.

Is there anything we can do to get them laying eggs again? Or should we retire all the ladies to garden clearing duty and start over again with new flocks?

(Pictured is one of the birds we lost… I miss her so much.)