Egg production seems way off

[gadus]

I've seen all the graphs illustrating egg production over the life of the chicken and now that my flock is entering their second year of laying, I've been bracing myself for a 40% reduction in laying activity.

I have to say though I wasn't prepared for getting essentially half of what I was a year ago. Okay, I lost one bird to illness, leaving 17 and some are moulting, some occasionally broody but I've got 5 red or black stars, 6 buff orpingtons and 6 EE who collectively were producing between 11 and 15 eggs daily through early summer. The decline from that point was rather precipitous and coincided with an equally rapid dropoff in feed consumption.
After the garden was mostly harvested, I started to free-range them again, in September but the feed consumption change pre-dated this. I'm now giving them 18 % game feed as I did the previous year. I have also splurged once for cracked corn/barley treats.

8 eggs now is a really good day but lately it's been more like 6. I won't lie, I'm not upset but I'm disappointed and scratching my head wondering if I'm doing anything wrong. Fortunately I have 6 more birds entering their sixth month so I should have more production shortly.

Any ideas welcome (but please no more of those "Birds are not machines" lectures).

 

[theoldchick]

My advice is to not get bogged down by the numbers. Chickens are individuals who don't look at a chart. What you are seeing in your flock is normal. In my book, if my aging flock is happy and healthy I'm jumping for joy. Most likely you are doing everything right if everybody is bright-eyed and tail high! Sounds like you are being a good chicken keeper. Enjoy them!

 

[aart]

So they are approx. 18 months old?

It's the lack of daylight.
They need 12-14 hours to spur the hormones that control egg production.
Days begin to shorten in June after the Summer Solstice,
daylight hours really start to decrease faster in August,
this often triggers the molt.
Even after molting is complete the lack of daylight deters production.
Pullets(first year layers) are also affected by the shorter days, tho sometimes less so.
Unless you want to manipulate your birds environment with supplemental lighting,
you're not going to get many (if any) eggs in winter,
even with fresh pullets every year.
Your pullets may or may not lay until after the Winter Solstice,
how long after remains to be seen.
In nature, eggs are a seasonal food.
As Blooie sez, "they are not pez dispensers"

Even using lighting is no guarantee.
I have 8 hens and 8 pullets under ~14hrs of light and am getting 6-9 eggs a day.
2 of the pullets went broody, they broke fast but still stopped laying for a couple weeks, 1 is still not back online yet.

 

[gadus]

Thanks both for thoughtful replies. I forgot to add that, as I did last year, I've been adding supplemental light-14 hrs worth-for several months now-5:30 am to 7:30 pm (old times; with DST, actually 4:30-6:30).

Yes, about 18 months old for all. I had good winter production from all of these birds last year so I'm hopeful for the six now coming into their egg-laying period.

My gut tells me I'm going to need around 25-30 birds (if different ages) to provide me with a steady dozen a day throughout the year. I do plan to incubate my own come spring so I can adjust accordingly with the hatching numbers.

Cheers.

 

[gadus]

For you cold-weather incubators out there, when is the best time to hatch (or buy chicks), so as to have them laying steadily before the winter? All my chicks I bought in late April/early May so maybe a month earlier?

 

[aart]

For you cold-weather incubators out there, when is the best time to hatch (or buy chicks), so as to have them laying steadily before the winter? All my chicks I bought in late April/early May so maybe a month earlier?

Again it's about the light, not the temps.
Have had better luck with fall/winter laying if pullets are hatched earlier, like Feb/Mar. I hatched and got new chicks later this year, mid-May, and they seemed slower to start laying.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If hens lay for an extended period of time egg production suffers, even if you extend the lights. Their bodies just wear out and need to rejuvenate. The numbers of eggs drop and the quality of the eggs can suffer. The commercial operations carefully control lights and feed but somewhere around 13 moths of steady laying the number and quality of the eggs produced becomes non-profitable and they have to decide if they molt them to refresh their bodies and egg laying or replace them with pullets.

It sounds like yours have hit that threshold. In spite of you extending the lights some are molting anyway. When they finish and start laying again you should be really pleased with what you get. Since this is their first adult molt I would not expect much of a drop-off in numbers and egg quality should improve. Ours are usually not the commercial laying hybrids those charts are based on and we don’t manage them the same way the professionals do. We probably will not get the same results they do. Still I think you will be pleased with the eggs you get after the molt.

It is pretty normal for pullets to skip the molt lay through their first winter, especially the production breeds. Not all do that but it’s pretty standard for certain breeds. That’s why you had great production last winter. They may have even done that without you extending the lights. I don’t extend lights and most of my pullets do that. But some do not.

I wish I had a good answer for when to get them so they start to lay in the fall but I don’t. I’ve had broods where most of them were laying before six months of age, I’ve had broods that waited nine months before the first started laying. Those were hatched in March and started laying in December, on the shortest days of the year with no extended lights. Go figure. In general and with production type breeds, if they hatch in March the majority should start cranking out the eggs in the fall but I won’t give you any guarantees.

The way I try manage to get eggs the year around is to bring in replacement pullets every year. It did not work two winters ago, but most years I at least get enough eggs for our use without extending the lights. Usually in January or early February I get enough eggs from the pullets and the hens that have finished the molt and resumed laying to fill my incubator. Usually.

I do not keep any hen for over three years so I can bring in a constant influx of pullets and keep my overall number sunder control. They make great broth and cooked chicken meat.

Good luck!

 

[aart]

I do not keep any hen for over three years so I can bring in a constant influx of pullets and keep my overall numbers under control. They make great broth and cooked chicken meat.

Same here.

 

[gadus]

Your info and feedback are invaluable. Stuff you can't find in a book or elsewhere.

Given what you say, it would seem that my hens should have been more productive for longer. Particularly as I've been regular with the artificial lighting. As I said, their production dropped precipitously back in the summer. Note well, they did not begin laying until late October/early November of the previous year. So this is way short of the one year mark. There were many days when 12-14 eggs was normal and now 6-7 are the norm. Just seems a tad low still given what I've read here.

Of course many are in molt and there are two BOs which seem to take turns being broody. And I lost one during the spring to illness. Even so, things still seem a bit "off."

I'm not sure how I would manage freshly hatched chicks here in snowy Maine in March. I guess by April they would be able to handle the weather outside, where I have a separate run and brooder shed available for them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I imagine you don’t have power to that brooder shed. I have power to my main coop and built a brooder into that. I’ve put chicks in it in January when the outside temperature was well below freezing. The challenge with an outdoor brooder is the temperature swings. I’ve had temperatures in the teens Fahrenheit one night and highs in the 70’s a couple of days later. You need to keep one spot warm enough in the coolest temps and a spot cool enough in the warmest conditions. I manage that with a large brooder that is well ventilated and heat lamps. I’ve had ice on one end some mornings but the other end is still toasty. Others use heating pads, heating plates, hovers, or something else. There are lots of ways to do that but if you don’t have power you are out of luck.

If I tried to brood in the house I’d wind up divorced, not something I want. Others do brood in the house and many enjoy the experience. Do you have a garage or other outbuilding you could use that has power, but keep in mind the dust and access.

We all have our own unique circumstances we have to deal with and all we can do is the best we can. Good luck!