Egg production cut by 75%...what's the problem?

[bassfishrman]

I have 22 laying hens. Only 3 are old enough to molt. The rest are only 10 months old. A month ago, I was averaging 16-18 eggs per day. For the last 4 weeks, I have only averaged 4 per day.

The temperatures have only been near freezing twice, so I don't think it is the cold weather (Southern Alabama). It was 72 degrees here on Thanksgiving Day!

Could it be the shorter days? Right now, it gets daylight at 6:30 AM and is dark at 5:30 pm. This is 11 hours of daylight. Could this be the problem? What types of lights/bulbs do you use to increase the daylight? My coop where they roost is 12ft x 12ft and 10 feet tall.

 

[omelette'smom]

I feel for you...we have 15 hens and I about wet my pants yesturday because we got 3 eggs! biggest haul in a month. we put a light in the coop to extend daylight......it may be working. right now we average about $30 for a dozen eggs!! Some people say it's not worth the money for electricity and just buy eggs.

 

[zatsdeb]

egg production slows down when the days get shorter. The more sunlight, the more eggs.
you can try to put a timer in the chicken house to make the days longer... but slowing down production is natures way of giving the hens a rest, makes them live longer.

 

[mcg30_40]

I'm in north Alabama and mine have slowed down also. I put a light in their coop a few days ago and they went from 3 eggs a day back up to about 8 eggs. At the best I was getting 12 eggs a day. Mine are young RIR hens and had just started laying when winter days started getting shorter. I have my light on a timer and it comes on around 3:30am and goes off around 7am when the sun comes up, it seems to be helping. Good luck!!

 

[PeeperKeeper]

Yeah, I think it's the lack of sunlight. We are avg. 3-7 eggs per day out of 40 hens. We also keep an eye on them for mites or lice which seem to get worse in the winter. We also try to keep some extra feed higher in protein to them for the lower temperatures we have been having here in Northern KY.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm getting eggs from half of my girls who are currently laying. And I have found that some do a mini-molt at about 9-10 months old, most noticable around the neck area, and they slow way down on their laying when that happens. It's the time of year, short daylight hours. And just remember that adding light can shorten their laying career, or even their life, by causing their bodies to push on, no matter what the time of year or the weather.