6 more for 6 less!

[PremisesMC]

Hi Guy's N Gal's,
I recently added two lots of 3 to my babies they are all hybrids i started off with 12 and was getting at least 10 eggs a day, now i have added the other 6 (not all in one go) I have 18 hens, but i'm only getting about 4 eggs!!!!
one Orpington started getting a bit broody so i separated her and she came out of it, but i have maintained the coop and it's as clean as it can be with 18 pooing machines living in it

I am feeding them good quality layers pellets, and now it seems that most of the time the eggs i am getting are from the newbies and are subsequently very small

any ideas from this good community would be helpful... Have a nice day folks

 

[Mahonri]

They need plenty of room in the coop (and run) overcrowding reduces laying here in AZ

 

[PremisesMC]

Hi Mahonri, I did think this might be part of or in fact the answer, i have them ranging in a 80ft by 100ft garden it's totally theirs and but they sleep in a coop thats 10ft x 8ft x 8ft coop < and i'm guessing that this is going to be my problem, they do fit quite well lots of roosting space and 2 very good sized nesting areas.

 

[Den in Penn]

How about stress? Introducing new members to the flock can be stressful. Anything else change at the same time?

 

[PremisesMC]

Thinking about it I have moved to another version of layer pellet it's slightly lighter in colour to the usual one but i do have 2 new sacks of the original pellets I also have started to give them Verm-X (natural worming) feed supplement.
They have all settled quite well, none of them seem stressed, I'll change the feed back and see what happens.