Comets' Egglaying tapering off...ugh, just started selling...

[honeydoll]

Thanks ridgerunner. This may be why this is happening. Should I turn off the light then? What would be best for them. Do they need a resting period and the light isn't allowing for that?

Carolyn

 

[Scottingitup]

Thanks for the very informative post Ridgerunner. Corrected a few fallacies I had about the subject.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know your specific circumstances or whether turning off the light and letting them molt will help or not. If they have not molted, they will start and you will certainly not get many, if any, eggs for a few months. If your problem is caused by them not molting, I think you will be real frustrated for a few months but eventually pleased when they do start back up if you let them molt. It can take anywhere from two to five months for them to go through a molt. These links may help you with that.

Mississippi State describes molting
http://msucares.com/poultry/management/poultry_feathers.html

Kansas State feather loss
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/lvstk2/mf2308.pdf

I do not provide any artificial light but let them go through their normal cycle. I'm not selling a bunch of eggs either. The way I do it, I always raise some replacement pullets. I find that pullets often lay through their first winter if they start laying in late summer. Not always. Mine this year did not lay as much as I had hoped. But most years, I still get plenty of eggs for my use doing this while the older ones molt. Different peole, different goals and circumstances.

 

[Mrs. K]

Ridgerunner-

I do not have artificial light, or heated water, no electricity to the coop. And while mine lost a few feathers, and for a while it seemed like there were feathers everywhere, none of them got bald spots, One does have a few feathers, in which all the edge came of the quill, she molted the hardest. The neighbor lady about 45 miles away, she does chickens serious, a couple hundred, and when hers molted they looked like they had some disease, with large bare spots. But maybe that is not real molt, but more feather picking? Cause she gave me a couple of those hens, when I got down to two hens left due to predators going into winter, and they were laying within a day or two of moving here.

my egg production went way down in December, and then January we have been have several very cold spells, well below zero, when it warms up, I get eggs, when the temp drops, I don't. I guess I am not sure if mine look rough due to coming out of a molt, or the very difficult weather we have been having?

mrsK

 

[Ridgerunner]

Here is a thread of a molting chicken contest held on this site. Mine never look as bad as most of these. These were entered to try to win the contest so they are pretty extreme, at least in my experience. If you read my links in the post above, you'll remember that the worse they look, the faster they go through the molt, and the sooner they get back to egg laying. Looking rough and pitiful is a good thing.

Molting Contest
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=394556

This is as bad as any of mine has ever looked. Most of the time, mine are not anywhere close to this bad. This is a full grown hen that had been laying for a season. She never really had any bald spots, but man was she comical looking running around. This stage only lasted a couple of weeks.

Mrs. K, I can't tell you what was going on with yours. When mine molt, they shut down laying. I had an Australorp that raised a bunch of chicks in the early fall. She molted while raising those chicks. She was back to laying before the others started their molt. Hers was the only adult egg I got for a while. Mine don't always start molting at the same time either. I had one hen that did not start molting until about three weeks after the rest had started. She kept laying after they stopped, then something got her started on her molt.

 

[honeydoll]

I am beginning the think my Comets are messing with my head. Ugh!! Last night was one of the coldest yet, and I didn't give them any artificial light, and guess what: they all laid eggs but one, whigh is a different story.

What in the world.

 

[blueseal]

i have 6 cinnamon queens (aka comets) that will be 2 years old april 1st. i have noticed that mine are slacking off since fall. 3 out of 6 might be laying now. i not impressed with the 6 i got . maybe i got a bad batch.