Advice for a friend please

hi my friend has three chooks , for the past week only one of them has laid the occasional egg , they are free to roam the garden, they have a four year old who likes to chase the chickens, could this have scared them and stopped them laying ?

I've noticed a definate drop in egg production with my lot over the past couple of weeks.

hi my friend has three chooks , for the past week only one of them has laid the occasional egg , they are free to roam the garden, they have a four year old who likes to chase the chickens, could this have scared them and stopped them laying ?

If your friend has recently acquired the birds then often the change in their lives will cause them to go "off lay"  obviously any eggs "in the pipeline" will come out, but then a pause.  As others have said if they go off lay at this time of year they will probably wait till spring to start again

There are many other things that will cause hens/chickens to go off lay
Moulting -are there lots of feathers in their house?
Red mite -are there combs bright red or washed out pink?
Can vermin get to the eggs?
Could they be laying thin shelled eggs then eating them themselves?
Plus any stress can cause birds to go off lay this includes being frightened by predators and chased around.