First of all, Happy day after Thanksgiving. Hope you are cozy and warm. I could use a bit of advice regarding a dramatic drop in egg production and anything I can do to jump start it again. This is my first flock.
Situation: We live in chilly New England with a 2 1/2 y/o old mixed laying flock of RIRs and Freedom Rangers. They all just went through their second molt and their egg production has dropped to zero. literally. not one egg in weeks. I have a 100w lamp in the coop to add some light. We've kept up with their normal feed diet/ oyster shells/ tons of kitchen scraps/treats. We upped their protein to help them through the molt. Still nothing.
Is this inevitable or is there anything additional I can do to restart egg production. If I can't get them laying in the next 2 weeks, they'll have to go into the stew pot for stock. I'm thinking that's where this is headed but I wanted to check here first.
Any ideas or thoughts is greatly appreciated.
Be blessed. Thanks for the help. And...since Thanksgiving is behind us, I can say.....
Merry Christmas!
-Mike
Situation: We live in chilly New England with a 2 1/2 y/o old mixed laying flock of RIRs and Freedom Rangers. They all just went through their second molt and their egg production has dropped to zero. literally. not one egg in weeks. I have a 100w lamp in the coop to add some light. We've kept up with their normal feed diet/ oyster shells/ tons of kitchen scraps/treats. We upped their protein to help them through the molt. Still nothing.
Is this inevitable or is there anything additional I can do to restart egg production. If I can't get them laying in the next 2 weeks, they'll have to go into the stew pot for stock. I'm thinking that's where this is headed but I wanted to check here first.
Any ideas or thoughts is greatly appreciated.
Be blessed. Thanks for the help. And...since Thanksgiving is behind us, I can say.....
Merry Christmas!
-Mike