We have 7 chickens that we got as baby chicks in March of 2016. They began to lay eggs in about October of 2016. We kept them in a coop that is about 32 square feet with access to an outdoor run that is about 200 square feet. The chickens were a little slow to lay eggs during the first winter, but once spring of 2017 hit we were getting about 5 eggs per day out of the 7 chickens.
We elected to let the chickens free range for much of the spring and they continued to lay about 5 eggs per day. Eventually the chicks became more brave and ventured further from their coop and found the mulch in our landscaping. As you can imagine, they made a huge mess out of the landscaping. So we decided to keep them inside their coop and run. While leaving them closed up, they will not lay a single egg. If we let them out for a few hours, they will go lay eggs. We have had them closed in their run for a month now, not a single egg. We feed them a layer a crumble and they have access to clean water always.
Are our chickens on strike?
We elected to let the chickens free range for much of the spring and they continued to lay about 5 eggs per day. Eventually the chicks became more brave and ventured further from their coop and found the mulch in our landscaping. As you can imagine, they made a huge mess out of the landscaping. So we decided to keep them inside their coop and run. While leaving them closed up, they will not lay a single egg. If we let them out for a few hours, they will go lay eggs. We have had them closed in their run for a month now, not a single egg. We feed them a layer a crumble and they have access to clean water always.
Are our chickens on strike?