Stumped, My chickens went from 6-7 eggs a day to 2-3

[Queen Chick]

I don't know what is wrong with my girls. Especially my EE's. I am geting 2 eggs from my light Brahmas. I probably misspelled that. We have had our 3rd snow. Maybe the cold spell will be ending. I got them a extra calcium source. That hasn't helped. I seen some one say give them some protein, cat food. Did they mean hard or canned?? Call me stupid, but our Rooster use to eat our cats canned food. Ha! I am just so worried about them. They are in out of the weather when they want to be, except, they are in lock down at bedtime. We decided the rooster might be wearing them down. So we found him a good new home. We also have a hatch of about 9 from this summer that havn't started to lay yet. Any suggestions?? Maybe they need some addition of house food? I feed them scratch and the egg ration crumbles. We are trying pellets, and that hasn't helped. I have had laying hens for 12 years and this is confusing me. This is my first post so give me a break If I say something wrong. By the way, some of my Americanna's and Easter Eggers are older. What does going Broody mean?

1 husband, 1 85yr old dad, 1 Sun Conure parriot, 1 Chesapeake Bay Retreiver, 18 hens.

 

[san415]

When a hen goes Broody it means she is sitting on a nest trying to hatch eggs. Most of the time they lay the egg and then leave the nest box, when they are broody, they are hope to hatch a "brood" of chicks.
A lot of people I know are having low egg production. I think its just the cold and darker days. Once it gets light longer they should be back to normal. Also some breeds are bothered more by the winter than others.

 

[azygous]

My three Brahmas (you spelled it right!) have slacked off laying, and my five Wyandottes have also. I was getting as many as nine eggs some days. Now I'm down to a paltry three!

I assumed it's due to the cold, and this winter has been a @#$%^&*@#$%! so I don't really blame them.

Somewhere else on this forum someone has suggested feeding cayenne pepper, or any of the red peppers that have capsaicin to them mixed in their daly feed. (not black pepper). It's supposed to heat up their little factories and make them think it's summer and therefore lay like little fiends.

I started mixing the requisite three or four tablespoons into their daily layer pellets, but beyond them enjoying the additional seasoning, the egg production has remained at three for eight layers.

Everyone else on the long thread reported amazing results, though. You might give it a try. It can't hurt, and it could help prevent intestinal parasites, too.

 

[Queen Chick]

Thank you all for responding. I will try the cayenne pepper. I guess I will blame it on the short cold days... I will keep you up dated..
Thanks agian

 

[cmom]

I read on an online poultry site that during cold weather to increase their calories as they tend to use them up faster during cold weather. I have been giving my birds their regular laying pellets as well as extra scratch grains which are higher in calories. Also I have been putting some vitamins with electrolytes in their water. The have started to lay a little better. I was getting usually 4 eggs from 15 older hens. Since I started giving them the extra grains and vitamins, now we're up to 8 eggs a day... My pullets haven't skipped a beat. I increased their grain intake too. Most days every one of the pullets lays their egg.

 

[edselpdx]

Could they be molting? Are you seeing extra feathers around on the ground or in the coop? Even fist year pullets DO molt. Do you supplement light? Days are certainly getting noticeably longer lately which should click laying back "on", but certainly the cold may affect production as well. If they use their calories to keep their body temp up, there are fewer calories to produce eggs with.

The cayenne thing seems to be old wives' tale... the only "reference" I've seen is a hungarian article that isn't very long on details or methodology and full of "this is how it works" without any backup. Cayenne is cheap and use it if you want, but besides people saying "it worked for me" there doesn't seem to be evidence to support it. I fed my chickens cat food last week and now the daffodils are starting to bloom. Is there a relationship? I doubt it. It doesn't appear that it will hurt your birds, though. They can't taste it.

My 3 ladies have given me no (as in zero) eggs since Xmas, but all have been in various states of molting for 3 months. Demeter has filled out her new feathers, pinked up her comb again and is squatting again for me, so I expect eggs from her any day now. I have been feeding some wet cat food (low-sodium) to help with the protein intake as they grow in new feathers. I don not supplement light, though.

 

[chevydmax04]

I had the same thing happen to me about 3 months ago. I changed their feed and put a light in the coop that stays on for an extra 6 hours after dark. The feed is a layer blend from the coop contains, cracked corn, some salt, ground oyster shell and a few other things I can't recall, no animal byproducts however. Anyway I have 14 hens and I was getting 1 or 2 per day, after 6 weeks I am now getting 13-14 eggs per day.

 

[gritsar]

I think it may just be the especially cold weather we've had in Arkansas this winter. My brahmas laid well all winter, but slowed down over the last two weeks when the wicked weather rolled in.
Also, when you re-homed your roo you upset the flock dynamics and that can have an effect on production too.

 

[Henfruit]

i'm not sure of the cayenne issue but my girls (10 Golden comets and 2 ??) have been giving me 10 to 12 eggs a day all winter and we are in southern ME. I have a light on a timer from dusk till about 8:30 pm and give them peas ( they are crazy!! for them ) or some sort of 'greens' in the AM and layer feed am and pm. We have not experienced a molt yet, but eggs are fabulous!! They have a 'paddock' to get into for sunlight every day if they want. I throw some hay onto the snow so they will venture out. Works for us!