Anyone Else with Low Egg Production?

[rosemarythyme]

Normal to get few to no eggs post-molt, until day length starts increasing again.

The reality is you need to add young layers to your flock every 1-2 years and/or save up eggs late summer/early fall if you want a steady supply of eggs in winter.

 

[Bruthabuz]

We have 36 hens and had been getting 20-30 eggs a day. Then last month it went down to 5-10 per day. It stayed that way for about a week before it gradually grew to 13-18 per day now. It is the shorter daylight hours. I decided against putting a timed light in the coops, but may change my mind if production gets worse. I hope yours recover soon!

 

[MyParadiseFalls]

Wow! How long has it been?

two weeks maybe....? Decline well before that two week mark tho.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I went from about 18 eggs a day (still low, it dropped this late summer from who knows how many) to 1 for chickens. Ducks were about 4-6 a day to 0 now

 

[Mrs. K]

A lot depends how far north you are, and how short the days. If you are further south, you get more and stronger light earlier after the solstice in December. I would only expect sporadic laying from any bird over a year in age at this time of year. Sometimes if a pullet has started laying, she will lay all through the winter, but if the light decreases too fast before she is ready...she won't lay until January.

For me, in south western SD, my eggs will start up again around the 20th of January, but sporadic until February 20 and from that point on, more and more until full production.

What is weird is I have a two year old BA, who has not molted yet and is laying a couple of times a week still. She is probably waiting for -20 F degrees to molt.

The rest of my layers are in full molt, I have one pullet that is laying and praying the others starts soon.

Mrs K

 

[McChooky]

After a hen died in a freak accident while free ranging my egg count plummeted to zero

It still isn't where it was before.I'm only getting 5

 

[K0k0shka]

I'm in MA too like the OP and I get nothing from September to February from chickens over a year old. With pullets, if they start laying before the fall, they lay through winter, but I've had pullets that were a bit slower to develop and missed the cutoff point, so they waited until February. It's normal.

 

[southwestclucker]

Yep, between the shorter daylight hours and molting, my 4 girls have given me exactly 2 eggs total so far in November.....cute little freeloaders.

Ha!!!! Just found 4 eggs in the wayyyyy back corner of the coop under the highest roosting bar...I suspect somebody accidentally pooped one out at some point and they all started doing it there.....so 6 total eggs for November instead of 2, still not great, but a little less bad.

 

[Adolph Otto]

I'll have to pull out the quart of pickled eggs in the back of the pantry. I did those in July. I'll buy some fresh someplace.

 

[Jdailey141]

S

I feel like a disappointed kid on Easter-every morning!

Same! 5 chickens and zero eggs for a few weeks. Even changed feed to organic and added more snacks, still nothing. We’ve had 3 of them for over 2 years now and haven’t been this low on productivity