Drastic Reduction In Egg Production

[Bruthabuz]

I'm at a loss to figure out why my young hens have mostly stopped laying eggs. They are all about 8 months old. We have 10 Cinnamon Queens, 10 Golden Comets, 9 Easter Eggers, and 4 White Leghorns. For the past 2-3 months we've been getting 20-30 eggs a day. Then six days ago, the production dropped to 5-10 a day. I've heard that when the days start getting shorter, they lay fewer eggs, but I don't believe it should be this drastic. I've kept them in their enclosures for the past two days to see if they've made their own nesting area, but today they only laid 7 in the past 24 hours. They don't seem to be sick, the weather hasn't changed that much, they've got feed and water. I even give them treats twice per day. We haven't gotten a single white egg from our Leghorns in four days. This is our second flock of chickens in the past five years and we didn't have this problem with the first flock. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[nuthatched]

It's normal to stop at a certain point of year, even all at one's since they're all equally affected by day light. Reduce the treats for longer lived chickens

 

[SamLockwood]

You really shouldn't be treating them more than once every couple days, especially things like scratch feed, vegetables, etc. I only give my birds scratch feed every couple days (except when my roosters get a little punchy, then I chuck a handful of cat-food their way and I'm suddenly their best friend in the world).

They always slow down quite a bit in winter. In my flock egg production started slacking off as all the year-old birds started molting between 1 and 4 weeks ago. Now one of my old hens has started dropping her feathers and I'm down from 15 eggs a day (for 20 layers) to 2.

If the usual pattern holds they'll stop sometime between November and December and start up again late January to February.

 

[oldhen2345]

My hens egg laying fell off this summer And I blamed the heat. one hen in particular is 3 and a faithful layer- even in winter. she hasn’t laid an egg in 6 months- not broody, molting or sick. Comb and wattle are red, eyes clear and she is very active. I changed brand of feed and started giving them cooked beans and microgreens sprouts. The eggs have picked up a little after a couple of weeks- I get 1 or 2 and even yesterday I got 3 (4 hens). Selena has yet to lay an egg, but I am hopeful that with the new diet, all will be well.

 

[Folly's place]

Hens need 14 to 16 hours of light to produce eggs, so in winter most birds stop or drastically reduce egg production. If you add a small light on a timer in their coop 3am to 8am daily, egg production will increase.
Often pullets continue to lay better their first winter, but as hens, not.
Mary

 

[Member 671655]

14 eggs

 

[LuciferRoo]

Last year there were people reporting that their hens stopped laying and they blamed Tractor Supply feed. I remember one lady said she switched from their layer feed to goat feed and the girls started to deliver eggs again.
Was it true or just fake stories going around the internet? I don't know. I generally do not use Tractor Supply feed as they are 50 minutes away and local True Value has feed at about the same price.
You could experiment and try different feed.
It would be interesting to see if it makes a,difference.

 

[Bruthabuz]

Thanks for the info. I've only been using TSC (Dumor, by Purina) pellets. When my girls were younger (but past the starter stage), I was feeding them Nature's Best Organic Crumbles (the only crumbles I could find). But it's $10-12 more for 10 pounds less. They are big enough now for the pellets and seem to like them.

In the summer, I was getting up to 25-30 eggs per day. Now that the days are shorter and colder, it is down to 15 per day. But that's still better than the 4-5 I was getting for a few days a couple of weeks ago.

If I can afford it, I may try other types of feed. With 36 girls, they eat a lot and I don't have a lot of extra $$ to spend. But I may try and see if it makes any difference.

I can't speak for the authenticity of the TSC internet story. In my experience, I haven't really seen any problems with the TSC feed. It's what I have fed my previous flocks as well. Also, since we have ducks, I have to use the All Flock versus the layer feed.

 

[16 and me]

I have 10 hens that were all laying. Mid October they all started molting except the 2 broodies with chicks. All egg production stopped. Most have beautiful new feathers now, but one is going through a longer harder molt. The first to start laying again was my Buff Orpington who left her chicks at 10 weeks to rejoin the flock. November 30th she laid the 1st egg I've collected since mid-October. That seems to have started the hormones up in the hens. 1 week later another hen started laying & a week after that a third hen started laying.
An interesting perhaps fluke, is that last year I changed their feed to 22% starter and they started laying. My neighbour dropped the protein level and they started laying. This year they were in the 22% for their molt, and when I started back on the 18% they started laying. My neighbour, who used timed lights, forgot to turn the timer on & they started laying. I suspect that the change itself triggers something in them to reboot their factory settings, but it could be a fluke. I've heard it said "A change is as good as a rest".. It's worth a try!

 

[MinnPeeps]

Have you checked for predator stress? Mites?