Egg Help Please

[Grand-hen-ma]

In the past, my girls were always laying about 5 to 7 eggs a day. All of a sudden we are getting 2 in a day or 4 or 6. I give my girls the best food the feed store has to offer. They have plenty of fresh water at all times. I give them a couple of handfulls of scratch a few times a week. They also get rice and fruits and veggies a couple times a week as a treat. I also offer some crushed shell from time to time. Can it just be the heat? My girls are about 8 months old.

I also put my Roo in with the girls today. He seems to be getting alone fine with them but none of the girls seem interested in him. And he's more interested in getting back to the other side of the fence, where he grew up with my other Roo and hen.

Any thoughts?

 

[Lotsapaints]

I would say it's from the heat..as for the new roo he's just a young upstart it takes a little time for them to adjust your roo just wants to go back to his old home give him a week or too.

 

[Kittymomma]

How old are they? The heat could certainly be slowing things down or they could be getting ready to molt...

 

[Mrs. K]

Or they could have a hidden nest, are they free ranging at all?

 

[Grand-hen-ma]

My girls can't free range because of the wild coyotees and red tailed hawks we have all over the place. Not to mention the 3 dogs we have. I offer plenty of fresh grass and I even grow rye grass on flats and give it to them.

Molting? Does this mean they will lose all their feathers and look like naked birds? Come to think of it I have been seeing some feathers on the ground in their pen.

My girls are about 8 months old.

My son gives the girls a huge scoop of scratch a day. I told him to cut back on that to a small handful every other day. I thought maybe he was giving them too much of that and they need their food.

Will see what happens.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Kittymomma]

Sometimes they go into a mini-molt at around that age, but it seems more likely that too much scratch and high heat is you culprits. Let us know if things turn around for youi if a week or two.