Buff Orp girls

[kychic]

I have 10 buff orp girls 6 months old on the 9th. I am getting 3 eggs a day and I am wondering if that is good or if they should be more than 3 girls laying.

 

[Kittymomma]

They could be slow to start and/or be low producing because of the lack of daylight this time of year. It could also be possible that they are hiding eggs or you may have an egg eater. Diet can also slow down egg laying. What are you feeding your flock and how are they housed?

 

[Bearsfan]

I went from 6 a day to 3. They are slowing down due to the shorter daylight.

 

[kychic]

Quote:
I am feeding laying pellets, boss, oyster shells and I give them some leftovers from dinner every now and then, and I also pull weeds and grass for them. They are in my horse barn, I gave them to ajoining stalls with an access to a fenced in run.

 

[Kittymomma]

Their diet sounds good so I'm thinking they're either slowing down for the winter (likely) or hiding a nest or two somewhere.

 

[johny]

My BO’s started laying at 20 weeks old.
They are 24 weeks old now.
Nine hens are averaging 6 eggs a day.
This week I’ve had as few as 4 and as many as 8 eggs in one day.

They have freely available calcium fortified layer ration 18% all day long.
The have fed on garden scraps and kitchen scraps since 6 weeks old. They get these treats almost daily in large quantity.

Our day light hours are short as winter approaches. I live north of Minnesota. I have a light on a timer that goes on 5 am and off 8:15am. It turns back on 4pm and off again at 9:15 pm. This extends their total “daylight” hours to just over 16 hours.

It is –15C (5F) at night. The coop is well insulated so the indoor temp is between 0-5C (32-40F). As it gets colder, I’ll spark up the 250W brooder lamp to keep the coop warm.

Not sure which of these factors is working in my favour but the combination has me overwhelmed with egg production.