Does heat (hot summer temps) affect egg laying?

[chrisjwu]

My mother has about 45 guinea chickens not sure how many are males and females but they have usually not wanted me to take there eggs of course I always had to chase them off of the eggs or move them. The couple of days I have been noticing that they really haven't laid any eggs and today when I went out to the coop I had found no eggs??? the temp been hot in the 90's but we have had a few other days that were in the 90's and we still got eggs so I don;'t know it that is it. Any help will be appreciated. Thank you
We also have Rhode Island reds and we are still getting close to if not a complete dozen a day from them.
thank you again
Chris
also if anyone knows the best way to keep rats,mice out of the coops let me know. I set traps and get them but new ones keep coming back.

 

[monita]

my girls have all but stopped laying as well with the temps being in the 90s.

 

[flgardengirl]

I'm in NE Fl and it has recently hit 100 F a few times and 3 of my pullets just started laying lol.

 

[Sunshine Chick 1]

I live near Orlando, Florida and three days last week it got 103 degrees outside temps at our place. Not to mention the heat index and my 18 hens were giving me 14-16 eggs a day up until then. They went down to about 9 a day and have gradually gotten up to 13-14 a day now. I have 6 buffs that just started laying, but their eggs are little. I mean little. I am hoping since they just started laying a week ago that they will get larger soon. I chalked it up to the heat that slowed my hens down. I am glad they started up again cause I was running short for my egg orders.

 

[countrygirl911]

wow i did not realize that heat can afect how many eggs you get form your chcikens i was told that the more light they get the more they produce. I am glad i read this thread.

 

[twentynine]

Yes! High temps affect egg production.

 

[helloroe]

Does anyone have suggestions of how they make them more comfortable to lay during this heat?

 

[nelgkel]

Our chickens are not laying yet, but all of the chicken farmers who we get our eggs from are having a dramatic decrease in egg production. The temps are very hot here! In the 90's with heat index into the 100's , we even got to 110 one day! I useshade, ice in the waterers, fan and right now I am in the process of converting a rubbermaid cooler into a water holding container for a nipple water system. That way the ice will not melt within just mere hours of putting it out!

 

[astatula]

I live in Central Florida and YES the heat is making a big difference here. My temps have been in the 80's most nights, I wake up to 80+ degrees at 7am. Today at 10am it was 90 with a heat index of 99 and it getting hotter. My hens have nearly stopped laying since the start of this heat wave. In Florida our chickens suffer all summer like the northern chickens suffer in the winter.

I have recently had one Delaware hen go into seizures during an extreme heat week and I have them under trees and plenty of shade. But when the temps are 95+ degrees and the humidity is 95%, you can not get out of the heat even in the shade. I have two separate coops, one gets to free range and the other gets the chicken run and coop only, no open ranging. I have noticed that the free range hens are looking much better than the chicken-run hens.

In my area of Florida, the heat is a definite factor in egg laying.

 

[Robeenop]

I have a mixed flock of 16 hens, 12 four mo old pullets,3 roosters and 2 4 mo old Roeun duck hens. I lost 1 sl wyandotte to heat.I have plenty of shade, waterers everywhere. I put fans in both my coops. The a frame seems to stay the coolest. I think the design is the key. I put frozen milk jugs in the bottom of a stryrofoam cooler at night with fans blowing from two directions. It really cools down the 100+ temps we have been having in Arkansas. I should have stuck with more heat tolerant breeds.The wyandottes seem to stress the most. Plus I have two broody buffs. They break eggs trying to set. The produce stand gave me damaged melons to freeze for my flock. And NO corn at all til fall. Oats, flax and mealworms for treats. All my excess veggies and scraps. I will not buy buffs again. So if you have a lot going on in your flock as I do....my egg production is down by half.