Abrupt decrease in egg laying

[Lweaver461]

Hello all,
This hubby and my second round of chickens. We had them prior to kiddos. Now that kiddos are older we've decided to add a flock to our family. We had 15 hens (mixed breed) and 1 rooster. We started with 9 hens and 1 rooster(Feb 2024). My son begged me for more chicks... on his birthday (July 2024). We were getting 7-9 eggs a day by September. We did slow introductions, supervised free range with babies and eventually got them into the coop. Egg production literally dropped overnight. Some days we do not even get a single egg. It's been 1.5 months since the younger hens were placed in the coop with the others. They all get to free range a few hours a day. I am starting to wonder if this is more than stress related decrease in egg production. All but 1 of my black sex link hens look great. She almost looks like she is in molt, but not a year old yet. She has few tail feathers, white pin feathers by head and comb seems slightly dry. I contemplated just adding a natural dewormer to see if that helped,but I feel like I'm in over my head. Sorry for the lengthy post. Thanks for any advice!
Lisa and family

 

[U_Stormcrow]

How are your birds contained when they free range??? If this is their first year of laying, and you bought them as chicks this year, I'd expect them to lay thru winter if they had already started laying - like your BSL. Which means, if they aren't cage kept, I'd be looking for a hidden nest.

It seems unlikely that all the eggs would end up in a hidden nest if they only free range a few hours a day, but... I just found a hidden nest for my 24/7 free rangers, 14 eggs. Emptied the nest, they abandoned it. 2 days later, another hidden nest, 15 eggs...

As light levels decrease, birds that haven't started laying yet will likely delay longer than "typical" for the breed, but my experience is that birds which start laying late fall usually continue thru winter, notwithstanding the lower light levels.

GOOD LUCK in your search!

 

[Lweaver461]

How are your birds contained when they free range??? If this is their first year of laying, and you bought them as chicks this year, I'd expect them to lay thru winter if they had already started laying - like your BSL. Which means, if they aren't cage kept, I'd be looking for a hidden nest.

It seems unlikely that all the eggs would end up in a hidden nest if they only free range a few hours a day, but... I just found a hidden nest for my 24/7 free rangers, 14 eggs. Emptied the nest, they abandoned it. 2 days later, another hidden nest, 15 eggs...

As light levels decrease, birds that haven't started laying yet will likely delay longer than "typical" for the breed, but my experience is that birds which start laying late fall usually continue thru winter, notwithstanding the lower light levels.

GOOD LUCK in your search!

Hello. Thanks for the response! We have a 2 acre property, some of it is wooded. I have searched to see if maybe they were laying in the woods, but have not found anything obvious. We free range them around dinner time for a couple hours so we can supervise. We have lots of hawks and one neighbor with a large dog.
I'm just confused and becoming concerned that my hens that were previously laying have not either adjusted to the newcomers after this long, or they may have a parasite?? I've not been able to see mites, but worms I'm questioning?
Thanks again!

 

[TooCheep]

Welcome to BYC, Lisa. You are in the right place.

Where are you located? It is common in temperate environments for chickens to reduce laying significantly in late fall and even stop in the winter. This is mostly due to shortening daylight.

Molting is expected at this time of year. Most chickens will lose 10-30% of their feathers and grow new ones. They stop laying during this period and use a lot of protein to regrow the feathers.

I wouldn't use a dewormer drug unless you see some type of worms in the poo. One solution I do recommend is to open a pumpkin and give it to the chickens. They love the seeds which are a natural dewormer. You can do that every fall.

Two other possible causes. I'll leave it to you if these are possible. (1) Some chickens become egg-eaters. That is very bad as it is hard to break. There will be a visible egg mess if that is the case. (2) It is possible that they have a hidden nest and are laying there. Since you only free range for a few hours/day, I'd try keeping them in the coop/run for the morning and early afternoon when they are most likely to lay. Then let them out in late afternoon/evening.

PS: Please add your general location to your profile. Many questions, including yours are at least partially dependent on location/climate/etc.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hello. Thanks for the response! We have a 2 acre property, some of it is wooded. I have searched to see if maybe they were laying in the woods, but have not found anything obvious. We free range them around dinner time for a couple hours so we can supervise. We have lots of hawks and one neighbor with a large dog.
I'm just confused and becoming concerned that my hens that were previously laying have not either adjusted to the newcomers after this long, or they may have a parasite?? I've not been able to see mites, but worms I'm questioning?
Thanks again!

I'm on twenty+ acres, my birds have free range of about 5, but routinely wander 10+. My latest hidden nest was 15' from my front door - I walked by it dozens of times a day.

Tall tufts of grass (this time), under low bushes (thorny blackberry, last time) and next to/behind tall plant pots (the time before that) are all popular spots for hidden nests.

 

[ChicNmom]

Your older birds could be going into a molt and as said, they all slow down as the days get shorter and some completely stop. Nature gives them this break. Some people add light to force them to keep laying. I let mine have a break.

All but one of my older hens have stopped laying due to the molt.
My younger hens that hatched in May are just starting to lay and since it's their first season they will probably lay eggs through winter regardless of how much light there is.

Your new hens should start laying Dec/Jan.

 

[Lweaver461]

Hello! Tganks

Welcome to BYC, Lisa. You are in the right place.

Where are you located? It is common in temperate environments for chickens to reduce laying significantly in late fall and even stop in the winter. This is mostly due to shortening daylight.

Molting is expected at this time of year. Most chickens will lose 10-30% of their feathers and grow new ones. They stop laying during this period and use a lot of protein to regrow the feathers.

I wouldn't use a dewormer drug unless you see some type of worms in the poo. One solution I do recommend is to open a pumpkin and give it to the chickens. They love the seeds which are a natural dewormer. You can do that every fall.

Two other possible causes. I'll leave it to you if these are possible. (1) Some chickens become egg-eaters. That is very bad as it is hard to break. There will be a visible egg mess if that is the case. (2) It is possible that they have a hidden nest and are laying there. Since you only free range for a few hours/day, I'd try keeping them in the coop/run for the morning and early afternoon when they are most likely to lay. Then let them out in late afternoon/evening.

PS: Please add your general location to your profile. Many questions, including yours are at least partially dependent on location/climate/etc.

Hello! Thanks again. NE Ohio. They stopped laying mid September, literally overnight when I transitioned the younger 5 to the coop. We did slow introductions, and I assumed the decrease was stress related. But we're 6 weeks out and at most we get 6 eggs a day, but often only 2 or 3 from our 8 month hens. I attached my BSL in question. I've checked for mites and thankfully no signs of those. Pumpkin can definitely happen. We try to be as holistic for us and our birds as possible. Thanks !!

 

[Lweaver461]

My first brood is from February of this year so I thought maybe it was too soon to molt. But maybe not. I don't see any signs of sickness except my one BSL has lost a couple tail feathers and her comb seems a bit dry. Maybe I'm over thinking it all. I was just concerned in the abrupt decrease in egg production when the younger birds were added in mid September and it still has not resumed. Thanks again!!

Your older birds could be going into a molt and as said, they all slow down as the days get shorter and some completely stop. Nature gives them this break. Some people add light to force them to keep laying. I let mine have a break.

All but one of my older hens have stopped laying due to the molt.
My younger hens that hatched in May are just starting to lay and since it's their first season they will probably lay eggs through winter regardless of how much light there is.

Your new hens should start laying Dec/Jan.

Your older birds could be going into a molt and as said, they all slow down as the days get shorter and some completely stop. Nature gives them this break. Some people add light to force them to keep laying. I let mine have a break.

All but one of my older hens have stopped laying due to the molt.
My younger hens that hatched in May are just starting to lay and since it's their first season they will probably lay eggs through winter regardless of how much light there is.

Your new hens should start laying Dec/Jan.

 

[Jener8or]

How big is your coop? It could be stress-induced going off lay, as you were saying. The birds should have minimum 1' roost space and minimum 4 square feet of coop space. It sounds like you are letting them free-range over 2 acres, so that is plenty over 15 square feet of run space per bird.

Hopefully they will all settle in with each other or you find their secret nesting spot. Since the new birds moved in, as others suggested, maybe they didn't feel as safe laying in the nest boxes (which I assume are where they all roost together?) Chickens are, in general, not big fans of change.

If they are healthy, active and eating, I wouldn't be too worried. You did a great job integrating the new ones into the flock and if you're in the N. hemisphere, it's typically time to molt and take a break from egg laying anyways (pullets might lay through the winter, but not all do.)

Best of luck with your egg mystery!

 

[Ridgerunner]

We free range them around dinner time for a couple hours so we can supervise.

So obviously this is not due to them hiding a nest while free ranging. The time of day is wrong.

We were getting 7-9 eggs a day by September.

That sounds like it was consistent. Some hens only lay two or three eggs a week which can contribute to getting various numbers of eggs on different days.

But we're 6 weeks out and at most we get 6 eggs a day, but often only 2 or 3 from our 8 month hens

So out of your 9 older pullets 6 are still laying in the nests. Overall production has dropped. So they have slowed down, not stopped. And many are laying in your nests, not hiding a nest.

I don't believe in absolutes for the behaviors of living animals, including chickens. And I believe that the law of averages applies to the flock as a whole. But it does not apply to an individual chicken. Just because the average age for a pullet of a certain breed to start laying is 24 weeks that does not mean that every individual pullet of that breed will start laying at 24 weeks. Some individuals will be early, some late.

I agree that most of my pullets that start laying before winter continue to lay throughout the winter and keep laying until they molt the following fall. But most does not mean all. Some don't. If the numbers add up three out of nine are not laying. That may feel a little high but with only 9 pullets just one is a pretty high percent of the total.

We were getting 7-9 eggs a day by September. We did slow introductions, supervised free range with babies and eventually got them into the coop. Egg production literally dropped overnight. Some days we do not even get a single egg.

It sounds like you did well on the integration, but something obviously happened. You can get a temporary reduction in laying when you subject them to change. They usually come back fairly quickly if it does not induce a molt. Stress can cause an early molt but you've had as many as 6 eggs in a day since. While one or two may be molting I don't think that is your main issue.

As Stormcrow points out, they can be really good at hiding a nest. That could be somewhere in your coop or run. After all this time that would be a huge number of eggs, hard to hide. I'd do a thorough search of the coop and run. You might find something.

To me, this sounds more like something is getting the eggs. Lots of critters will eat eggs. Many leave signs behind, like pieces of eggshell or wet spots. But some don't. Critters can come at different times, eating what eggs are there and not getting the ones that are not yet laid. That might explain why you get more eggs some days than others.

In Ohio (thanks for that information) it could be snakes. A snake will come at varying times of day or night and eat its fill of eggs if they are there. Then it will disappear for two or three days while it digests them. I had a 5' long black snake eat 4 eggs out from under a broody hen and come back later for more a few days later. Yours sounds too consistent for it to be one snake and unlikely to be two or three.

Canines like coyotes or foxes would more likely be interested in hens more than the eggs but does a dog have access? A dog may not bother your chickens but can eat eggs.

A human is not going to leave any signs either. A human often means someone you know, not a stranger. It does not seem very likely that a human could have been that consistent that long but like all of this that is for you to consider.

Chickens can decrease production with shorter days and severe weather. I don't think your weather has been that severe for these 6 weeks but the days have gotten shorter. I don't think that is a major part of this but it could explain one or two pullets.

I don't know what has happened to your egg production. I suspect it is a combination of things. I'd be frustrated with that amount of lost production. It seems like more than it should be.

So what can you do, other than search for hidden nests? How often do you collect eggs? Just once at the end of the day like many working people? Does it improve on weekends when you can collect more often? That might give you a clue.

I suspect you collect eggs when you let them out to free range so by letting them out you are not allowing an egg-eating predator access before you collect them. Usually I'd say leave them locked in the run for a couple of days to see if production increases. That would mean you either locked them away from hidden nests outside or locked an egg-eating predator out. But I don't think that applies to your situation. Still, something for you to consider.

I'd suggest marking a few eggs and leaving them down there. If they disappear you know something is getting your eggs.

I can't think of anything else to recommend. It is frustrating and it may be due to totally natural causes with your flock. Good luck!