Decreased Egg Production

[Mannus]

Hello,

I have 23 Buff Orpingtons that are a year old. When the days started to shorten, obviously their egg production dropped to about 15 or so eggs a day, and I put up timed lights. The production picked up to normal. Around mid January, production dropped back down to 15 or so eggs. I attributed it to moulting as they were just about to turn a year old and there seemed a lot more feathers laying around

. However, since January, the production has dropped and dropped to where I am lucky to get 10 eggs a day from 23 chickens (I lost one to merek's a few weeks ago)! I track my daily egg count on a chalk board next to the coop, and I chart the weekly sum of eggs and the average per day on my computer. For the past three months I have been getting an average of 7 eggs a day from my 24 chickens!!

I feed them plenty; there is always food left over in the feeder at the end of the day, and in the morning. They have access to more than enough water. I also give them any compost my family comes up with. They get a three-way scratch with corn and such as well as pure oyster shells (I sprinkle a little scratch, not much really, around the run for them to search for, and the oyster shells I put in a bowl for them). The coop and run are kept clean, so no mites or such. They seem in perfect health (except for the one with Merek's, but I got her out and away from the others right away). I still keep the timer on to make sure that they have enough light.

Why have my chickens stopped laying? What can I do to have them lay again. They used to lay 22-23 eggs per day before the light changed. My dad is getting ready to scrap them; I used to sell extra eggs and that covered feed, but now with them not laying enough eggs for my family to even enjoy them, obviously, the question is coming up as too why are we keeping them?

Thanks for any help.
Jacqui

 

[CMV]

It sounds like you may have a parasite problem. You can check for worms and lice/mites, or you can just assume they have them and treat them. I use Eprinex on mine because it not only takes care of worms, but also lice and mites. It also does not transfer to eggs, so discarding eggs after treatment is not needed. Eprinex was hard to find in my area and it is very expensive, but it is worth it's weight in gold. (And that's about how much it actually costs!) A thorough coop cleaning is going to need to accompany treatment if your birds have bugs. And you will need to re-treat in 7-10 days.

Whenever my birds go off laying I treat for parasites because I have discovered every time that treatment has fixed the problem. Good luck.

 

[Mannus]

I don't think they have mites, I've checked them over for those. worms or such could be a problem. I ran a google search on Eprinex, and from what I read, it says that it is not suitable for use with chickens

. I couldn't even find someplace online that sold it.

Are there any other ways to tread worms and parasites? Like diet and habit change?
Thanks for the help.

 

[halo]

This is just my opinion, and its worth what you paid for it, but I think when you start manipulating laying cycles on breeds that arent egg laying machines, such as leghorns and sexlinks, that you can really mess up their regular laying cycles. Regular breeds, other than those I mentioned, lay just so many eggs a year, which is less than the true "egg laying breeds". I think the manipulation with the light will just plum wear them out.

 

[feathersnuggles]

Do any of your birds show signs of broodiness? Tis the season for that. And broodiness can lower egg-laying.

 

[Kait27]

I can't offer much advise, but I can sympathize. I have four buff orps myself, who will be a year in June. They started laying mid-late November, and it was fantastic... We anticipated needing the light, so nothing changed with the shorter days. I was getting 24 or 25 eggs a week... each hen was laying pretty much every day. i'd get 1 or 2 days of 3 eggs, and the rest were 4. then about 5-6 weeks ago, production dropped off. averaging 2-3 eggs/day. what gives, ladies? I continue the extended day light, they eat, they drink, they are quite merry and spoiled. I think that buffs are just not as prolific layers as I'd hoped.

 

[chookchick]

I would have to agree with above posters on all accounts. Don't provide any supplemental lighting, let them take a break in the winter. Treat for internal parasites if you have not done so (at least you aren't throwing out A LOT of eggs!). You might want to supplement their protein with high protein treats such as sunflower seeds, meat, unsalted fish, washed cottage cheese, etc...Make sure they never run out of water or oyster shell. Mine took a good long break this winter, but now are laying like crazy! (five eggs average from six hens) I almost wish they would slow up a bit so it wasn't so hard on their bodies!

 

[MelissaA]

Quote:
Jacqui,
I know exactly how you feel. I went through the exact same thing with my hens (bantam cochins) laid really well the first year, went through molt and then pretty much stopped laying. I think I got about 1 egg from 15 hens every week!

I tried everything:

-I always have a night light on (they freak if they are in the dark- just something that they never got over after the brooder- one hen actually got crushed to death). Also just to keep them warm in the winter.

- no bugs/ parisites

-feed was superior- I even cranked up the protien (they have oyster shell and grit free choice)

-tried electrolites in the water

-vit D and K (I live in Oregon- we don't see the sun a lot!)

As my last resort, I thought maybe mother nature would cure it, I bought a rooster- he was in quarantine when I caught 4 of my hens eating an egg one day. After over a year of wondering what to do (my girls are now 3)- I had several egg eaters. I had heard egg eating was not easy to break and usually have to scrap the whole flock to stop it. I tried all the tips I could find- soap in the egg, chili powder in the egg, I even tried dogs bitter apple (which worked the best, but didn't stop it). I decided to put the roo in with the hens regardless of the egg eating. Guess what?! That boy went in there and took total control immediately. He is the leader, he has put a stop to all the egg eating and my girls are back up to normal production!

Hope you can figure out what the problem is!
Melissa