Almost no eggs. At wits end

[mattjanky]

I have a flock of around 40ish adult hens most only a year old. and some roosters, as well as 2 turkey hens and a Tom that live in the horse stall in my small pole barn. I'm only getting about 4 to 5 eggs a day and I can't for the life of me figure out what's wrong. I feed them a generous helping of layer mash with grit added. I have a light on them. And 2 heat lamps over a roost if they get cold (Michigan) and they get a fresh bucket of hot water every day. Recently I built a new shelter for my ducks and put a bright led shop light in it and around 6 days ago the ducks started laying again. So I bought another for the chickens thinking maybe the bulb I had wasn't offering enough light. But I feel like they tapered off early this season. Another thing I could think of would be sickness? From what I've read online most things like mites don't completely shut down laying. Just decrease it. I did have some sickness killing some chickens this fall. I never did figure out what it was but some of the birds were wheezing and had trouble with balance and standing. I took a couple dead chickens to msu for testing but the guy said he didn't think he needed to do blood work because it looked like impaction. And it was half the price $90 instead of $180). No birds have died since around Thanksgiving so I'm hoping that's all over but I'm still barely getting any eggs! Does anyone have any insight in to my problem? Thank you in advance. I sell eggs from a cart by the road and without the money from selling a decent amount my feed bill is really killing me.

 

[feedman77]

Did your birds hit a molt. If so they may be down for awhile especially in winter.

It's a trick that sometimes works is to give them a generous helping of cayenne pepper in their feed. I know a couple of people that swear it keeps their chickens laying.
As well as adding some kitten food. The protein and fats help them as well

Days are getting longer so that should help too.

On your lighting if you can find them use a full spectrum bulb. It mimmicks the sun.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

I wouldn't mix your grit and your feed. Grit should be offered on the side, along with oyster shell for the calcium.
I can't say that's what the problem is, as I'm fairly new to this myself, but the grit worried me with the impacted crop.

 

[mattjanky]

Good tips on the grit. Thanks. I forgot to mention that I do add cayenne pepper and garlic powder to the feed. I don't think many got the chance to molt. I have them the light pretty early and if any did molt it was a very light molt. My turkeys did molt though and they are in the same conditions with the same light as the chickens though so perhaps it wasn't bright enough. I feel like my production even started to drop in late summer. More than half of my current flock is Isa browns and out of 40is hens I was maybe getting just over 2 dozen a day. I'm not saying it's not a very light molt or that they don't have enough light. But is there any sickness that pretty much just cuts off egg production almost entirely? I'm trying to explore all the possible causes.