22 Weeks - 18 Hens - 22 Eggs total

[Buckeye2002]

I am at a loss. I anticipated that I would be farther along in my egg production than I am now. I know they will lay on their own good time, but this is getting a bit odd.

I do have one interesting note to add. One of my girls actually lays her eggs while roosting and then the egg rolls down the poop board on to the wood shavings below. Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Ridgerunner]

You don't say what breeds, your screen name might mean some are buckeyes or it might be from something else. But all in all, pretty close to normal. Pullets just coming into lay often have full control of all parts of the process from the start and lay good eggs in daytime and in their selected nest site. Some others though don't have full control of that process and can drop an egg from the roost or just walking around in the coop or run. It may take them a while to gain control of the formation of the egg, that's why pullets are known for so many strange looking eggs. If it goes on for over two weeks she may have an issue but most pullets that have issues work those bugs out of the system fairly quickly.

I don' know how many of your 18 pullets are laying or for how long. Some pullets pretty much lay an egg a day for several consecutive days when they start, some may lay every other day or even less often. Some may lay an egg then wait a while before they lay again. If you have production breeds yeah, that's a little low but not ridiculously so. If you have a lot of decorative breeds, that could be pretty good. But in either case you are not that unusual.

 

[Buckeye2002]

Sorry...I have RIR

 

[Ridgerunner]

RIR, yeah I would expect some better. These things are often solved with patience, don't be surprised if you see a real increase really soon. But I'll go through some things.

Do you know how many different birds are laying? Is it a case of not many laying or of them laying irregularly? What are you feeding them? What percent protein? Do you provide most of what they eat or do they forage a lot?

Do most of them have bright red combs and wattles or do many of them still have pale combs and wattles? One way to help determine which are not laying is to look at the vents. A tight dry vent means that pullet is not laying. A soft moist vent means she is laying or is getting ready to. When you look it is easy to tell the difference.

Is it possible they are hiding a nest? That's a fairly common reason people think they are not laying.

Is something getting the eggs? Most critters, including the chickens, tend to leave signs like egg shells or a soggy mess when they eat eggs. It's possible the chickens could clean up the shells after some other critter, but they are usually not that good at cleaning up all of them. If it is a lot of eggs it is even less likely they will clean all of the shells up.

The critters that typically leave no signs are snakes, canines, and humans. It's probably too cold in Nebraska for snakes to be that active. The way a snake eats is to take a few eggs (how many depends on size) and go away for a few days to digest them, then come back for more. From what I've seen, four eggs at a time is about right for a 5' long rat snake. I doubt it is a snake in Nebraska this time of year but maybe you can see a pattern?

Canines can eat eggs whole but if it were a fox or coyote I'd expect you to be missing some chickens, not just eggs. Dogs however will often learn to leave chickens alone but eat eggs. How possible is this? It doesn't have to be your dog.

I'll let you decide if a human is possible.

I still think you need to be a bit more patient, spring is coming. It should not be long before you are buried in eggs. But maybe this gives you something to think about.