Thanks Flockwatcher. Everyone has opinions but those were just stupid posts. They should thank you for doing it too. I'd love to have a moderator that would stop me and erase the stupid things I do and say sometimes
Ruth,
I've found that when you worm them and when they go through a moult, it can take a month or two months even to get back on track. Even when they do lay they are not usually fertile after worming. They need to settle in now to start laying again. Moving them causes a continual uproar in the flock and some hens need things to be very routine and calm for them to get down to business. Unless they have access to grit then I don't ever feed seeds. They can't digest them without the grit. Mine are all laying well now but they had at least 2 months of not laying and I was fine with that, they needed a rest and it gave me time to evaluate my pullets and cockerels and figure out a plan of who to put with who and know when they started laying I'd know who the daddy was.
There are still some younger ones moulting a few feathers but mostly they're done with that and I have tried to keep the "moving of the hens" from one pen to another, to a minimum. That just upsets everyone. I still do it occasionally if I really want a particular hen with a certain rooster but I try to plan better when I set my pens up to avoid moving them a lot. Also, if you're feeding a "complete" diet (crumbles, pellets etc) that has been scientifically formulated, any treats you give will screw things up a lot too, food wise that is. Greens are a little different and I don't give much but then mine are not crazy about them anyway. They do love a bit of grass though so I may grow them some wheat. I do give vit A,D and E supplements. The Vit D comes from the sunshine but since mine are in the garage and because the days have been short, they could use that boost and it's needed for the hens to absorb the calcium they need for eggs. Vit E promotes fertility but give too much and it can be harmful, it's an oil base vitamin so it's not flushed out and can be accumulative. Vit A is good for the skin, eye and general health, another oil soluble like E and can be harmful in too large a dose. I get a bag of the Vit A,D,E from the feed store and used to give a small pinch in quart or so of feed but it's a powder so I saw a lot of it was being wasted in the bottom of the feeder, it just sifted down to the bottom and as a powder, they didn't eat it. So now, I take some of their feed, a pinch of the vit powder and a teaspoon of cod liver oil from
Walmart (it's not pure, there is some water, orange flavor etc in it) and mix it and they Love it and are now taking their vitamins and not wasting it. You can buy pure cod liver oil at the feed store, probably cheaper and you won't need to use as much but I find the orange scent much nicer than the cod/fishy smell, lol. I'll probably buy that stuff next time though, a Lot cheaper. It's a great way to give the Vit A and D and the oil/fish base adds shine to the feathers.
Mine have the garage lights on for 10 hours a day or more, I turn them on as I go to work and off in the evening when I'm done with taking care of them. The length of day affects them more than you might think. My Araucana's went through the same moult and worming this fall and dropped off laying and were giving me just one or two a day till this week, I put lights on a timer in the coop and yesterday I got 12 eggs from the same pen I was getting just an occasional egg. It's not just lights, they need it to be steady for the same amount of time every day so a timer is a great way to do this.
I hope this all helps some. I vary things a bit too and always trying to do things better and I've learned a lot from other people here. I finally have my home made incubator running smoothly and hatched my first chick from it, a Serama chick of course. My issue was fresh air, not enough, but now that I have that figured out I hope to have quite a few chicks hatch this winter.
