Advice for friend chicken keeper.

[sugarbush]

My wife has a co-worker who has chickens, he bought them as chicks at tractor supply, they are mixed heavy breeds. He had about 20 pullets that never started to lay well. He has had them two years now and has never gotten more than one or two eggs a day from them. I told him to ad lights on timers to the coop and feed layer mash, plenty of fresh water. Two months latter he is still getting only a couple of eggs a day. Any advice that I have forgotten?

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Penned or freerange?
What breeds?
Is he giving them to much corn as treats?

 

[justusnak]

Could be several reasons why they are not laying well. What is he feeding them? You say "layer mash" Is this a crumble,powder,or pellet? My chickens like the pellets, and there is less waste. If they are getting toom many treats, ( scratch,corn etc) they will not lay as well. Are they over crowded or do they freerange? If they free range, it is possible they are laying somewhere other than the nest. In this case, he will need to keep them in the coop overnight, and not let them out untill late morning (providing there is ample room) untill they are finished laying for the day. Then let them out. Could be the fact there is not enough light due to winter. Some people will light the coops on timers....however, I like to let mine have some time off to regenerate thier bodies. I know several people around me are haveing issues of thier hens not laying...but they think corn is a staple to a chickens diet too! I just cant get them to change thier feeding ways...so they go eggless.

 

[sugarbush]

They free range all day, but are closed in at night. The coop is large, old tool shed. I thought that they might be laying somewhere else and had a look around, but I didn't see anywhere they could be laying. This is a very well kept hobby farm. Everything is well manicured so there is no brushy areas or other barn space for them to get into that you would not notice.

The layer mash is a crumble, I don't think he is feeding cracked corn, but I wll ask. My other thought is that he has egg eaters, but he doesn't find egg shell around.