Egg Concerns

[bellivchickens]

6 months ago, January in North Dakota, our eggs went from 18-24 per day (from 28 hens) to a "good day" recently is a dozen.

They're now mostly free ranging, and have access to grit and oyster shell.

I'm finding at least one "soft shelled egg" per day below the roost and our eggs seem to be a bit thin on shell toughness.

They went through a feed change, but I'm back to the original soy free organic layer from mypetchicken.com.

I'm now down to 25 hens, and only getting 7-10 eggs a day? Serious rooster problems, he's gone now, but its still disheartening to go to so few eggs a day when they're in even better conditions than the winter.

Thoughts? I'm traveling tomorrow, so I may not respond quickly.

Thanks,

John

 

[Bethel3330]

I'm new but my first thought was how old are they? Are they production type birds? And are any of them molting?

 

[bellivchickens]

Buff Orpington, LIght Brahma, Cinnamon Queen, Barred Rock. The oldest are 2 this summer. Molting for 6 mos? The point is that the birds haven't changed, something else has.

 

[Bethel3330]

No, but it was still winter and then lower light conditions up until a few months ago. I meant if any of them began molting since spring... They might lay some in the winter but stop altogether during a full molt, and it sounds like some might be the right age for it though it's too early in the year I guess. It was just an idea.

 

[aart]

Maybe confine them to the coop for 3-4 days, they may be laying out in their range area and need to be 're-homed' to the nests in the coop.

If they forage a large portion of their daily food capacity, they may not be getting enough protein and/or calcium as they may be eating less of the feed you provide(man, that stuff is expensive!!). Might be a good idea to offer oyster and/or crushed chicken egg shell in a separate container.

Feed changes can take a couple weeks to kick in too.

Molts can last for months in some birds. Were you using supplemental lighting in the winter? That can throw molting off.