Hen Suddenly Laying Less

[BrittneyGrasher]

I have a lovely Easter Egger hen who is just over 16 months old. She is typically my most faithful layer of the small flock that I have. Over the last week and a half or so she has only produced 2-3 eggs. She usually lays 5-6 times a week. Our summer has been incredibly mild here in Missouri, so I cannot really contribute it to heat. My other two that currently lay are doing so "normally". Does anyone have any ideas as to what could be effecting her? I'm not trying to be unrealistic or unreasonable, as I am thankful for the little that she is still laying. It is just very unusual for her. Thank you for any input.

 

[iwiw60]

Have you checked her to see if she's egg-bound?

 

[BrittneyGrasher]

That didn't even cross my mind. Would I just feel for an egg? She is not displaying any of the classic signs of being egg-bound. Apart from not laying as often, she is acting just like she always does....foraging, frolicking, and seems just fine.

 

[iwiw60]

That didn't even cross my mind. Would I just feel for an egg? She is not displaying any of the classic signs of being egg-bound. Apart from not laying as often, she is acting just like she always does....foraging, frolicking, and seems just fine.

Here's a great link to read up on it:

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/search?q=egg+bound

 

[BrittneyGrasher]

Thank you!

 

[aart]

There are multiple possibilities.

Is she molting?

Do they free range and she's maybe laying in a new secret nest?
Keep them locked in the coop for a few days or at least until mid afternoon.

Have they had a scare like a predator intrusion? Snakes, rats, squirrels can steal eggs.

Has there been any other changes to their coop/run?

Are they eating her eggs?
This might be hard to ascertain as they will eat the entire egg, shell and all, but you might find a wet spot of egg white in the nest or elsewhere.( I just found one of these this morning...little stinkers!)

 

[nana2madi]

My 13 girls (16 months old) used to lay 8-10 eggs a day, but the last three days it has been only 2-4. I suspect they are eating some in the afternoon before I get home from work. Could this have anything to do with the introduction two weeks ago of my sons two adolescent roosters? The girls are Leghorns, the boys are Buff Orpingtons, so it isnt an agression issue. How do I deter them from eating eggs?

 

[kittydoc]

It's hard to catch an egg eater. Took us months. We set up a deer cam and that gave us suspicions, but it wasn't confirmed until we installed rollaway nest boxes to stop it, and then we caught the bad hen going over to eat a couple of eggs that other hens had laid on the ground (in protest of the rollaway boxes). She went to Camp Amana, and we have had no more egg eating.

However, our girls have dramatically dropped production, too. It may be perfectly normal. Young hens will often lay well through their first winter, but just as soon as the days shorten the following year, they prepare to go into their first big molt. I think, based on experience, that their reproductive tract slows down before they start molting feathers (both happen during molting). This happened to us same time last year, and just started happening now. We went from 14 eggs a day to 4 a day in a matter of days.

We used artificial light last year starting in early August, and have already started it this year. It takes a couple/three weeks for the egg production to start to get back to near normal, though in fall/winter you may not get as many as in late spring/early summer even with light. We put a fluorescent light on a timer, and it is best to add light in the morning than in the evening. We have ours set to come on at 5:30 am (when it is dark). It's already helping. We had 7 eggs yesterday, and it hasn't even been on a week yet. The optimum is said to be 16 hours of light/day, but even ensuring that they get 14-15 helps. As soon as light drops below 14 hours a day, there goes your egg production.

This is one of the reason people who are most concerned with egg production get replacement chicks every spring, so they will lay through the first fall/winter without additional light. It's the mature hens that need it, if you want to maintain your egg production. There are only two bad aspects to adding artificial light and stopping the molt:

(1) If they look scraggly, they'll stay scraggly. We had to put chicken saddles on some of our low-ranking hens to help keep them warm last winter.

(2) Chickens, like every other animal, have a maximum number of potential eggs. If you keep them laying year round, for multiple years, they will stop laying sooner than if you didn't use artificial light--but you'll get the same amount of eggs out of them. Hens' productivity drops about 20% per year under normal circumstances.

Just some thoughts!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

August is almost upon us and with the Dog Days of Summer comes the start of the Annual Molt.

Me thinks that is the problem your are having with your hen./hens.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

(2) Chickens, like every other animal, have a maximum number of potential eggs. If you keep them laying year round, for multiple years, they will stop laying sooner than if you didn't use artificial light--but you'll get the same amount of eggs out of them. Hens' productivity drops about 20% per year under normal circumstances.

I won't argue the above numbers one way or the other.

I will say this though, as a hens egg production wanes, her appetite is un affected.