Chickens Laying Less as of late

[sussex1110]

Hi, I was just curious to the reason for which my chickens are laying less lately. I originally had 7 hens laying roughly 3 dozen eggs a week from about 3-7 eggs a day. After introducing a rooster that isn't that aggressive the began laying about 2-5 eggs a day. The coop has been cleaned and they have been dusted for mites just in case, though I haven't spotted any.

There was a bantam rooster in before I introduced the Silver Leghorn rooster (which came from a healthy flock as well) but they all appear to be getting along. For the most part all of the hens seem rather healthy and very active. All in all I have been unable to diagnose the reason for the decreased laying.

If anyone has any thoughts on this it would be awesome.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Depends a lot on the hens' breeds and ages. Days are getting shorter so they may be getting ready to molt.
I was down to 12 adult hens. I still had plenty of eggs. 4 are broody now and I only got 3 eggs yesterday. I'm afraid the rest are getting ready to molt.

 

[BayBay Peepers]

I agree it could be a molt, or daylight, or age, etc. It could also be from adding a new rooster. He may not be aggressive, but sometimes when birds are added it disrupts the flow of things. If it is from the rooster they will probably start picking up again as soon as their settled. If it's any of the other reasons then production will probably be down for a while.

 

[sussex1110]

Thanks, I thought it was the rooster at first, and it may have been for two of the past three to four weeks, but since it's still going on I'm guessing the molt idea may be sound. I have been seeing a few feathers dropped after I cleaned out the coop, but didn't remember the molt starting this early last year. I have literally only owned chickens for about a year and a month though.

 

[Michelle2639]

I agree...it's probably due to molting. My girls have started molting already and I've only been getting one or two eggs out of the five hens every couple of days for the past couple of weeks.