I am having a really hard time raising chickens...

[Debbie09011970]

My older girls aren't laying much right now either, some are molting, some are just taking a break apparently. I'm only getting 0-1 egg a day from them. My pullets are laying about an egg a day each right now.
I find the best way to get a continuous supply of eggs is to have different age groups going at all times, raising up new pullets each spring, and if you are looking solely for egg production, culling the oldest girls out each fall.
I do wonder why so many chickens at once? The more you have the harder they are to keep an handle on and of course the more they cost to feed as well. I'm not surprised you are exhausted. 20 - 30 pullets should give you more than enough eggs to eat, sell and incubate.

Here in the Arkansas Facebook group, I made a post about no eggs. That was about the same time that I made this post on here. I got something like 77 comments. Out of those 77 comments, I think only five comments were positive (meaning people were actually getting eggs). The rest were getting almost no eggs. My neighbor across the street has young hens and she is getting 2 eggs a day. Her daughter down the road is getting no eggs. It's not just me. Arkansas just had an extreme heat wave this summer and I imagine it had unsettled these girls and they are still trying to recover.

Having said that, I will say that I ordered 30 baby pullets that are due to arrive this week. By the time these girls that I have lay in the Spring, they will be close to 2 years old and their laying will start to decline anyways.

I also ordered a light. I don't usually do lights in the winter like this but, after getting almost no eggs this summer/fall, I am thinking it will be ok without hurting them in the long run. I mean, they've already had a long break from egg laying. I just hate to feed them all winter if this light doesn't work .

 

[Debbie09011970]

I tried everything to get these girls to lay eggs. Locked them up for days with high dollar food. Set them free to get bugs. Cat food, tuna, sardines, cayenne pepper. Nothing. Still no eggs. It's been 4 months and we decided that we could not feed them all winter just to get eggs in the Spring. We very sadly either cheaply sold or donated most of these birds this weekend/Monday.

I ordered some pullets back in July from Ideal Poultry and, three weeks or so ago, I ordered more so we are starting from scratch swearing to ourselves that we will never buy another adult bird again--EVER. Thank you for trying to help.

 

[Debbie09011970]

I doubt it! Three of ours were hatched on May 15 and three of them May 23, so that puts them at about 19 and 18 weeks - I have read that between 18 weeks to 6 months is the basic first-lay range?? Hatchet on July 19 they would only be 9 weeks old.

The birds that were supposed to be laying were born last summer....15 months old. Everyone knows three month old babies do not lay eggs.

 

[Debbie09011970]

I tried everything to get these girls to lay eggs. Locked them up for days with high dollar food. Set them free to get bugs. Cat food, tuna, sardines, cayenne pepper. Nothing. Still no eggs. It's been 4 months and we decided that we could not feed them all winter just to get eggs in the Spring. We very sadly either cheaply sold or donated most of these birds this weekend/Monday.

I ordered some pullets back in July from Ideal Poultry and, three weeks or so ago, I ordered more so we are starting from scratch swearing to ourselves that we will never buy another adult bird again--EVER. Thank you for trying to help.

We got rid of close to 110 birds (a distant neighbor added some for free to our collection) and we also kept about 20-30 hens and 1-3 roosters.

 

[Acre4Me]

Good luck. Just reading this thread today.

What a pain!! Feeding chickens, no eggs…I agree with starting fresh, overall. We had to buy eggs for close to 8 months last year. So, we bought high production girls as chicks this spring. They have been a great blessing with eggs! We have other chickens too, but wanted some high production girls to get us through.

Heat: I’m in Ohio, not as hot as your area. But, during high heat times/long summer days, we see a decline in eggs unless we pay attention to their water intake. We encourage good hydration a few ways: fresh (cool) water around mid day. Water in shade stays cooler, providing a wet mash with their feed, made to a thick batter consistency then add large ice cubes to it (pushed in) - my chickens think it’s the best and gulp down the feed liquid in a hurry -sometimes I have to add more water to it! By roosting time the pan is empty- I don’t give the wet mash until about 2 pm when their run is nearly completely shaded and they are moving around more. Sometimes, just a pan with ice works, it melts, they drink. I don’t rely on frozen fruit bc it dilutes their nutrition, but they certainly get a variety of chilled melon rinds and berries throughout the season.

Shade: very important, some in hot climates will wet down the ground in a shady area so it’s cooler still and the girls will scratch down to cool off in that cooler area. We grow vining items on the South fencing (the fence goes up to 12’ tall in some areas). We’ve had luck with birdhouse gourds (these grow well and have the largest leaves of any gourd we have grown). This year we grew Hyacinth Bean Vine -very attractive and vigorous.


Light: yes, important. We have light on a timer so they are getting consistent exposure. We have it turn on early morning, off mid-afternoon. They go to roost at natural sundown. We aim for approx 14 -15 hours light a day.

Good luck!

 

[Iluveggers]

I have several places to house them...one is 600 square feet. One is over 1000 square feet (my old horse barn). I have a few other spots also. That's not the problem though and what I house them in is irrevelent here. The problem is no eggs. ZERO eggs. If they free range, I get zero eggs. If they are locked up, I get zero eggs--even if I lock them for days and feed them good feed. I have been feeding laying pellets and laying crumbles.

Could there possibly be a hidden nest somewhere if your girls are out and free ranging? My neighbor thought her girls were taking a break until she found a huge nest with tons of eggs…not in the nest box!

 

[NatJ]

I tried everything to get these girls to lay eggs. Locked them up for days with high dollar food. Set them free to get bugs. Cat food, tuna, sardines, cayenne pepper. Nothing. Still no eggs. It's been 4 months and we decided that we could not feed them all winter just to get eggs in the Spring. We very sadly either cheaply sold or donated most of these birds this weekend/Monday.

I ordered some pullets back in July from Ideal Poultry and, three weeks or so ago, I ordered more so we are starting from scratch swearing to ourselves that we will never buy another adult bird again--EVER. Thank you for trying to help.

Thank you for updating!

I'm sad to hear that nothing worked with the older ones, but hopefully you will have better results with the young ones you are raising now

 

[Debbie09011970]

Good luck. Just reading this thread today.

What a pain!! Feeding chickens, no eggs…I agree with starting fresh, overall. We had to buy eggs for close to 8 months last year. So, we bought high production girls as chicks this spring. They have been a great blessing with eggs! We have other chickens too, but wanted some high production girls to get us through.

Heat: I’m in Ohio, not as hot as your area. But, during high heat times/long summer days, we see a decline in eggs unless we pay attention to their water intake. We encourage good hydration a few ways: fresh (cool) water around mid day. Water in shade stays cooler, providing a wet mash with their feed, made to a thick batter consistency then add large ice cubes to it (pushed in) - my chickens think it’s the best and gulp down the feed liquid in a hurry -sometimes I have to add more water to it! By roosting time the pan is empty- I don’t give the wet mash until about 2 pm when their run is nearly completely shaded and they are moving around more. Sometimes, just a pan with ice works, it melts, they drink. I don’t rely on frozen fruit bc it dilutes their nutrition, but they certainly get a variety of chilled melon rinds and berries throughout the season.

Shade: very important, some in hot climates will wet down the ground in a shady area so it’s cooler still and the girls will scratch down to cool off in that cooler area. We grow vining items on the South fencing (the fence goes up to 12’ tall in some areas). We’ve had luck with birdhouse gourds (these grow well and have the largest leaves of any gourd we have grown). This year we grew Hyacinth Bean Vine -very attractive and vigorous.


Light: yes, important. We have light on a timer so they are getting consistent exposure. We have it turn on early morning, off mid-afternoon. They go to roost at natural sundown. We aim for approx 14 -15 hours light a day.

Good luck!

I am starting over (minus the ones that I love and just can't part with yet). Thanks for the advice.

 

[Debbie09011970]

I sold cheaply/donated most of these birds weeks ago. I have around 20ish of my favorites: Black Copper Marans and Heritage RIR. I have not received one egg out of them that I know of. Not in 4 months. I started to use a light, used it for two nights, and then changed my mind. They are heritage birds. I would assume (once the heat ended, then supposedly they molted even though very few appeared to be molting, now it's winter) that I would get a few eggs once the molting season ended. Still nothing. Should I put a light on them even though I know they need a break or should I wait until Spring or should I give up and just sell them cheaply/donate them and assume they were worn out and will never lay again. These hens were more: $15 each. They are heritage birds and I assumed I would get at least a few eggs in this pretty Arkansas weather once molting ended. It's been 70 degrees but nothing.

 

[3KillerBs]

I sold cheaply/donated most of these birds weeks ago. I have around 20ish of my favorites: Black Copper Marans and Heritage RIR. I have not received one egg out of them that I know of. Not in 4 months. I started to use a light, used it for two nights, and then changed my mind. They are heritage birds. I would assume (once the heat ended, then supposedly they molted even though very few appeared to be molting, now it's winter) that I would get a few eggs once the molting season ended. Still nothing. Should I put a light on them even though I know they need a break or should I wait until Spring or should I give up and just sell them cheaply/donate them and assume they were worn out and will never lay again. These hens were more: $15 each. They are heritage birds and I assumed I would get at least a few eggs in this pretty Arkansas weather once molting ended. It's been 70 degrees but nothing.

It's the hours of daylight that matter more than the temperature.

Egg production should ramp up as hours of daylight increase after the solstice, though some might resume laying when they're done with their molts.