Anyone else's birds quitting early this year?

[shelleyd2008]

Honestly I'm not sure how many females I have. I have yet to do a head count since we finally got rid of the rodent problem

I know I've got at least 12, there are about 30 birds in the pen. I know I have 2 golden, 1 cinnamon, 1 tuxedo, and at least 1 (probably 2) white males. I don't know if the rosetta that got eaten was the male or the female. I'm also not sure if there is a brown male, though I believe there is. So theoretically there should be at least 20 females in the pen, and I'm lucky to get a dozen eggs a day. Lately it's been more like 8 or 9.

Our weather has been crazy this year, it's early October and the high for today barely got in the 60's. This is very unusual for this time of year. This summer was unusually hot as well.

Just curious if anyone else is having laying problems with their coturnix already.

 

[aprophet]

mine have slowed down a lot the natural light has been screwed up the last coupla days we have had flash flloods I am tidal here and when high tide is in and it rains my yard is a lake all these clouds and rain = no natural light one of the bobs I hatched this season laid her first egg today

 

[Rozzie]

Nope. However, mine have artificial lights on from the time I get up -- usually around 8 -- until at least 10 PM. They get a bit of light before that, too, coming in through a West window. I may reduce their light this winter by an hour or two, though.

 

[chickenwhisperer]

Shoot, now that the summer heat is fading, I been getting eggs like crazy.
I think every hen is laying an egg every day.

I have so many, I dont know what to do with them . . .

Im done hatching for the year . . .
I can only eat so many pickled eggs . . .
CL has been a crap-shoot, either orders way too big for me, or people giving the run-around, or really small orders that they want delivered no less.

I have also been feeding my quail ground up rabbit pellets, maybe that has something to do with it too . . .

 

[joe125]

Like Rozzie, I give supplemental lighting to my coturnix, and haven't noticed any egg loss, though the usual times are getting pushed back. That is normal for me. Even the pens that normally quit laying because of their lack of supplemental light are doing fine. They shouldn't clam up until November at any rate.

I agree that it is freakishly cool for this time of year, but haven't been getting any egg loss because of it.....YET

Things could turn on a dime with coturnix.

 

[shelleyd2008]

The egg loss started with the freakishly HOT weather, and the sudden switch to ridiculously cold hasn't helped either.

ETA: I don't give supplemental lighting during the winter

 

[Mrs MIA]

I have to supplement with light in the winter, since our days are only 4 hours long at solstice. But at 8months old mine just quit. 65 birds and only 5 eggs a day. I just culled 40+ birds, and still had 5 eggs today.

I'm going broke feeding them, so if they're not producing, it's time to change it up. Shelley's helping me out, but Chickenwhisperer, if you have a surplus...

I can't hatch too many.

 

[joe125]

Quote:
I know you don't give supplemental lighting Shelly. I just wanted to note the difference between our setups. Sometimes it has everything to do with lighting...well mostly sometimes, and a number of other factors, that humans can't detect.

Yes, it has gone from freaky hot to freaky cold here as well. The weather is a huge factor, but....did you change their feed recently?

 

[emvickrey]

From what I understand, cortunix will lay year round while Bob Whites stop in winter. So, with that said, my cortunix are giving me an egg a day while my Bob Whites stopped. They are now in freezer camp. I have to pick their predacessors now to keep back from going to freezer camp. I have a brooder of jumbo browns with a count of 19. And i'm got a batch been hatching all day and so far I have 20 with 16 more eggs to go. Then I have some Texas A & M's due next. They go in lock down tomorrow while I have 11 Bob Whites in lock down now. Due in 3 days. I'll have a problem when I have chickens and quail to hatch at the same time as I only have 1 hatcher.

We just moved the grower pen inside the shed along with the layers. The grower pen has a heat lamp on one side of it but the others on the other side can benefit from it because we used moving blankets and covered the wire sides to hold in the heat but the bottom is still open so poop can go to the floor instead ofon the blanket. The blanket does reach to the floor though. The layers we put a florescent light over the top of so they get their light and I will cover them at night to avoid drafts. It's not cold enough to worry about frozen water just yet.

I need to move the 7 week old Bob Whites to another pen so I can put more babies in the grower pen. When they get some feathers they go outside. I loose less this way. More work because they are little stinky poop machines.

 

[Jstall]

Has anyone keep their birds laying all winter? If you did keep they laying did you heat the building?
Does anyone know how cold it has to get to affect egg production? I read the post about the heat lamp.