9 hens, 1 roo, 5 pullets = NO EGGS! What the heck is going on???

[ecorso]

Are you seeing any feathers laying around? If so, they are molting. Are their combs bright red or are they faded? They fade in molt, although the can still be red if it is intensely hot.

 

[nao57]

Broken egg shells, egg yolk in the nest box.

It's actually not all that common. Yours are probably not laying or someone is stealing them. If they are in prime egglaying age -- a few months to a year and a half old -- and they are gettingbplenty of food and water then it's either stress or someone's helping himself to your eggs. The stress can be from an infestation or disease or it can be rats or snakes or a dog or something similar.

There are 2 dog pens within 20 feet of us on the neighbors yards. I can't do anything about this though...

Would that be close enough to do it?

 

[Mark Park]

If they worry the chickens it would. Are they barking at them? Those penned uo dogs probably have nothing else to keep their minds busy. I know my border collie could sit and stare at the chickens through the wire for hours at a time. The one time he managed to get in there he killed a dozen of them


Can you screen them off so the chickens can't see the dogs and the dogs can't see the chickens?

 

[Phoenixxx]

Someone mentioned breed, and you said some are already 2 years old... Commercial layers retire at about 18 months to two years of age, so if those are what you have then that can certainly be a factor.

The dogs shouldn't be a bother, since they are part of their local environment and the chickens are or will become accustomed to them being there.

Laying is down where I am, but we are now in week three or so of a heatwave. The only ones I have that are still pumping them out like machines are my Chantecler, Norwegian Jaerhon and my guinea hen! My entire flock of cochins has decided to go on "maternity leave", the rest are producing at about half to two thirds their normal for the season.

How old are the pullets, and what breed? Commercial layers start producing at about 16-20 weeks, whereas some heritage breeds can take as long as six or seven months before they start.

 

[gtaus]

Ok, so egg production at my house is WAY down....

My egg production has been down the past month, too. My hens are just over 1 year old, and currently they are down about 17% from the previous month - but that was an all time high month. Anyway, here are some things I think may be affecting my egg production....

1) Free range feeding. In my case, I bring loads of grass clippings into my chicken run for the hens because I cannot free range the birds due to predator concerns. Still, they scratch and eat things in the grass clippings all day and they eat maybe only about 50% of their commercial layer crumbles every day. My layer feed is 18% protein, but I suspect the grass clippings are considerably less in terms of protein, despite whatever bugs they find to eat in the grass. The eggs are both less in number, and smaller in size since the hens have been outside in the chicken run eating grass.

2) I have 1 broody hen that is sitting in one of the nest boxes all day. I know that she is not laying any eggs, but I wonder if that affects any of the other girls?

3) I went through a short week of one, or more, of the hens eating eggs. So I started collecting eggs many times per day and that seems to have worked as I have not seen any signs of broken/eaten eggs in the nest boxes for a couple of weeks now. I keep wooden eggs in the nest boxes, so I collect the real eggs and if they peck the wooden eggs there is nothing good to eat.

4) We went through a couple of weeks of hot and humid weather (for us) and I think that may have had some affect on the hens. Instead of being outside all day scratching and pecking the deep litter compost for good things to eat, they were spending the majority of the day resting in whatever shade they could find and really did not bother to get active until after suppertime. That only leaves them a few hours before they head back into the coop for the night.

Sorry to hear that your egg production is down to almost nil. I suspect everyone here on the BYC forums knows what it takes to tend their flock everyday and those precious eggs are payback for our effort. I hope you can turn around your situation soon.

 

[Mark Park]

Those fake eggs are for training a hen to go broody, so it's no wonder one if your hens has gone broody on you. That's what they are for -- not for teaching them nit to eat eggs or teachibg them to kay eggs or anything else.

 

[aart]

Those fake eggs are for training a hen to go broody, so it's no wonder one if your hens has gone broody on you. That's what they are for -- not for teaching them nit to eat eggs or teachibg them to kay eggs or anything else.

Nope.
The biggest use of fake eggs is to show the birds where to lay,
including the use of all of multiple nests.
They can definitely help curb egg eating, coupled with frequent gathering.
Fake eggs won't 'make' birds lay, nor will it 'make' them go broody.
Tho I use multiple fakes eggs when I move a broody to the broody enclosure to help her settle in before giving her real eggs.

 

[gtaus]

Nope.
The biggest use of fake eggs is to show the birds where to lay,
including the use of all of multiple nests.
They can definitely help curb egg eating, coupled with frequent gathering.
Fake eggs won't 'make' birds lay, nor will it 'make' them go broody.
Tho I use multiple fakes eggs when I move a broody to the broody enclosure to help her settle in before giving her real eggs.

Thanks, @aart. That's what I understand about using fake eggs, too.

 

[gtaus]

Those fake eggs are for training a hen to go broody, so it's no wonder one if your hens has gone broody on you. That's what they are for -- not for teaching them nit to eat eggs or teachibg them to kay eggs or anything else.

From what I have read, a hen goes broody because of a hormonal condition. I have never heard of actually training a hen to go broody. But I won't pretend to know everything about this issue.

 

[Mark Park]

Nope.
The biggest use of fake eggs is to show the birds where to lay,
including the use of all of multiple nests.
They can definitely help curb egg eating, coupled with frequent gathering.
Fake eggs won't 'make' birds lay, nor will it 'make' them go broody.
Tho I use multiple fakes eggs when I move a broody to the broody enclosure to help her settle in before giving her real eggs.

LOL