2 flocks, both duds, can't decide what to do!!

[Ema]

Quote:
the only rats we have around here are in cages in my daughters room , in fact we don't even have any signs of the chipmunks we used to have, frankly they got into a scrap with my dogs in the spring and chased by the rooster and well they took it upon themselves not to come back, too many chickens for them I suppose, lol. the feeders are also hanging. and I clean out the coops every sunday so apart then a tiny bit of spillage which is normal, they are definitely consuming that much food.

my feed supply store owner was making jokes today about how just my chickens alone would keep his business going LOL. he advised me to get a new flock in the spring is things don't change by march :-(

 

[Ema]

Quote:
you know I was thinking of that too int he beginning, but there is no signs of it, no broken shells, which I could very well expect they would eat them, but the egg does leave a sticky mess behind and there is nothing, we check every single day first thing in the morning and then again in the afternoon, the stray and shavings are dry. I think these chickens are simply laughing at me LOL

 

[Ema]

ok so I was trying to answer every post one by one..too many, ahahaha,

they do not have worms, they are healthy, they do get pumpkin a few times per year, they love it. they had a vet check up in the fall, as well.

rodents are not an issue, they are not spilling their food and there are no hidden nests as much as I would love that to be the actual problem it really isn't. My dh is at his wits end, there farms around here with non insulated barns with flocks of chickens, same ones as mine and got them same time, form same place as mine and they are getting eggs. there are no signs of anything going into the barn other than my dogs and my dh and I, we have a connecting hallway we enclosed this summer so we wouldn't have to trench through the deep snow.

the hens are all used to our dogs, and the dogs are good with the hens, there is no access for the dogs to get inside the coops at all, as the doors re latched, but the girls do have the ability to go outside whenever they want, they just choose not to. my lighting is on for 12 hours, and the barn is not dark except for after 5 pm, I set it from 5 am to 5 pm because the rooster is always at it at 5 am so I figured that was a good sign of what time to set it to.

I draw the line at heating the barn, just too much money to heat the darn thing. but trust me when I say its much warmer in there than it is outside

the stray and hay is in a different building, we get it weekly from another nearby farm and store it in a hay shed so they do not have access to it. I have torn apart their coop many times looking for eggs and they look at me like I am nuts. I had more chickens then the ones I currently have, I processed a few and the fat little things about 5 to 6 pounders were quite healthy. my older girls, there are 3 that are molting, they look scruffy....

I will mention one thing, I used to give them BOSS on a daily basis, but haven't done it since they all began to quit laying, mostly because a bag of BOSS is 30 bucks and their eggs used to pay for all of that stuff for them, including feed for my turkeys and dogs.

I love my hens, but I obviously need to figure out my dilemma and what I am going to do. I lace their feed with cayenne pepper and sometimes red pepper flakes. that is the only stuff they really get, they get free choice Oyster shell, which as I mentioned before, they do not like too much, and they do have grit. they are not free ranging now as its winter and apparently they do not like snow, but they do have free choice access to the outside. they just choose to wander about inside.

yesterday we were checking things out inside the coop and the hens were using my saint bernard as a roost, it was a funny sight to see!!!! so I know they are not stressed and they don't cackle at me like they usually do if something if off, they get lots of water, fresh every day cause well it freezes over night, and we are in there a few times per day so if its frozen we change it with warm water.

I am at a loss, I know and you all know there SHOULD be some eggs, but there isn't!!!!!!! Tomorrow is coop clean up day, fresh straw and shavings...their favorite day!! lol we opened up the top of the barn, attic, in the spring...so hubby is going up to check things out up there.

Ohh ya I almost forgot I have a cam.......after monitoring them for a week we took it right back out, no movement at night, but during the day they do their chicken thing, in and out of the nesting boxes but all they do is kick straw and hay out and chase each other for that one piece of straw with the oats still on it lol. Did not see anyone climbing up there at all.



Ema

 

[The Lazy L]

Feed?

Chickens unionized and are on strike for better benifits?

 

[Ema]

Quote:
lol......waiting to see them picketing LOL.

We went up the barn attic tonight, and uhmm nothing but dust, and a few old jars....so really, I do believe these girls are just laughing at me!!

 

[lotzahenz]

LIGHT, it has to be light if nothing is eating or stealing the eggs. Maybe the bulbs are just not effective enough in the barn and since they don't go outside all that much if at all, they are NOT getting the light the eye needs to encourage laying. Try a much brighter light and leave it on later in the day, at least until 8pm and see if you start getting eggs. It usually takes about two weeks to see results. It must be lights or your girls are all on strike. A hen will lay on wire cage floor, a dirty coop floor, anywhere if she has the urge and no good nest. That can't be it, it has to be physical. The hens I keep in my barn don't lay well if they don't get to go outside. As a matter of fact, they will quit all together unless I let them free range. Even with the barn lights on, it is gloomy in there and they don't like it much. I would just hate to see you cull a whole flock, even though you will have some great soup, only to end up with the same problem next winter. Maybe you don't have production birds, but more heritage breeds that are particular and only lay in the spring? This is a saga for sure.

 

[Hunter0704]

Whether this helps or not???? Here is a thread from BYC on how to get chickens to start laying eggs, and keep doing so. Give it a try. What have you to lose? Good luck.!!!!

Re: feeding Chickens Black pepper
Cayenne pepper, either ground or crushed, (a.k.a. red pepper), jalapenos, ground black peppercorns, and serano peppers are all things I have heard that will keep up or increase egg production. My great grandmother grew chili piquins (what we called turkey peppers) along one fence line for the chickens to eat. Those little dinky things pack a wallop in the heat department and she said that they helped keep the egg production up. I can also remember her making a homemade pepper "soup" type stuff and storing it back for using in the winter time. She'd toss about every type pepper she raised in the garden except the bells into a blender after washing them down and run it on puree til it was just a green goo. She'd give them a 1/2 cup of it in the morning and have a full egg basket in the evening during the winter. She would also give her layer feed a healthy dusting of crushed and ground red pepper every day. She'd buy that stuff in big bottles that resembled quart jars and go through the crushed stuff in a week. Figure roughly 1/2 to a whole cup for 24 birds a day?

And no, the eggs tasted like eggs.

 

[lucky123]

I would change brands of feed. That is the only thing I can think of from the info you have given. I don't know of anything else it could be. It seems like some would lay reguarless though. I know its much colder there, but my productions lay atleast 6 eggs a week without light. This has me scratching my head, and I know its driving you crazy.

 

[MedChicken]

It seems like there are probably multiple things going on. Some may not be laying due to nutrition, others due to light, others are laying outside or burying their eggs several inches deep, etc.

I know you said that you checked the coop, but mine have a tendency to lay under all layers of bedding when it's cold out. They dig down to the floor, lay, then cover the eggs back up. I have to carefully pat down the bedding in the nest box to find them! The trick I have discovered is to put a decoy egg in the box. When they lay, they bury the decoy along with the real egg. If the decoy is still visible on top of the bedding, I know they haven't laid yet - when it disappears, I go hunting!

 

[Ema]

I have the same lights I had last year, they are fluorescent plant bulbs and I have 2 sets in the barn, so its not sun blinding but believe me when I say its bright in there.

As for nutrition, there is only one type of layer feed I can get up here in Northern ontario. Only one feed store, the nearest one after that is 5 hours away. the only way to switch out their food would be to stick them on feed meant for another type of bird like turkey feed, or pheasant, or wild bird feed,

So to cap things off, its not a lighting issue, its not a feed issue (unless its cause they are not getting their BOSS anymore), and its not them burying their clutches. This isn't my first go with chickens I have always lived and been raised on a farm, but this certainly is my first time seeing all chickens quit laying.

I have been told that its just plainly too cold for them, but they are in an insulated barn, as opposed to the other farms around here with the same breeds from the same hatch date as mine that are in coops that are not insulated and still laying quite well. But all chickens are different, maybe they do feel like its too cold for them, you know with all those feathers and all!!!!!!!

I am at a loss just like the rest of you, its such an impossibility but yet its happening. I am quite sure I cannot be the only one that has a flock of layers who don't produce, but maybe I am the only one with 2 flocks, UGH....

well off to the barn I go, time to clean things up as always, I think I will bring a wooden spoon and a pot with me today though and show it to them. LOL who knows it might actually work!!

Ema