Egg reduction

[Lesliejean]

I have a 9 months old buff orpington. The other one lays eggs every day. This one has started laying every other day and sometimes waits till 4:30 in the afternoon to lay. Any thoughts about this? Thanks so much!

 

[foreverlearning]

Some just don't lay everyday. I have one blue layer that only lays every three days. I also have one RIR that doesn't lay until 9pm. Everyone says there is this schedule to lay and they don't lay after 3pm, I just don't find this to be true in my flock at least. My RIR goes in the nest box at dusk and I lock up the coop. At 9:30 every night I shine a light in there and she gets up on the roost with a still warm egg in the box. I would check your hen over for general health and parasites and if everything checks out then just chock her up to being an unusual hen.

 

[chickkrzi]

I'm thinking that depending on breed most hens will lay on a schedule of like every 28-30 hours, meaning that she will produced a egg every 28-30 hours. So each day they will lay a little later during the day. I've seen mine in there nesting box as late as 6-7 o'clock. And when they lay that late, they'll skip the next day, and then really early the day after that. And it'll depends on the hen herself and breed.

 

[Lesliejean]

Thanks so much. I appreciate your experience. I'm new at this and have just the two. Take care.

 

[Ridgerunner]

No two hens are exactly alike. There are general things that normally happen but you can always find exceptions. I only have seven hens laying right now and I can find several exceptions in them.

A hen starts the egg laying process by releasing a yolk to start that incredible journey through her internal egg laying factory. Hormones trigger that release. If a hen is going to lay the next day, she normally releases that yolk about 20 minutes after she lays an egg. But there are other factors. I’m not sure what all of them are but one is tied to daylight. They are a lot less likely to release a yolk late in the day to avoid the egg needing to be laid at night.

Then not every hen lays an egg a day. Some regularly skip one or two days, while some are pretty irregular.

It takes somewhere between 23 and 30 hours for that egg to go all the way through her internal egg making factory. The average time is about 25 hours, but that can vary quite a bit. A whole lot of that time is spent in the shell gland, getting that shell laid on. A hen can speed up or delay the process if she has a reason. If she gets stressed she might lay it early, say if she is frightened. That’s one way to get a pretty light egg from a brown egg layer. The brown is the last thing to be put on the shell. Or if it is too dark or maybe another hen is hogging a certain nest, she can hold it for a while.

I had a green egg layer that would lay an egg a day for 10 to 12 straight days, skip a day, then do it again. And her egg was always in the nest by 9:00 a.m. It was easy to know which one was her egg by the color. More normal is a hen lays just a bit later every day until it gets late in the day, then she skips a day. Some are really erratic when they lay.

A couple of years back someone had a long thread on here about how the weather or events affected egg laying. Often you get a drop in egg laying the day after a stressful event, like an unusual really cold day in the winter, maybe a bad day of thunderstorms, maybe when you treat the flock for mites or lice, or after a predator scare (not necessarily a predator attack), or you shake up the pecking order by adding or taking away some chickens.

Chickkrzi I’d guess that whatever kicked off those hormones in your late layer was something late in the day, not earlier. That’s unusual but they are all unique in their own way.

Lesliejean, I don’t know how long this behavior has been going on or how long that pullet has been laying. Sometimes it takes a while for them to get their act together when they start. If it has only been a couple of times, that’s not long enough to establish a pattern. If it has been a couple of weeks or longer and she’s pretty regular about that, then that is probably her pattern.

 

[angelinapackard]

Okay I'm tapping into your post since you are getting great advice. I have 5 hens, 2 are easter eggers that always lay green and I get an egg out of one of the two every day. One week no green eggs. We tried keeping them in the coop to make sure they weren't laying else where and asked the neighbors to make sure they werent laying in their coop. Still day 8 no green eggs. They dont appear to be in distress however, they are fighting with all the other hens lately. Any suggestions?

 

[foreverlearning]

Okay I'm tapping into your post since you are getting great advice. I have 5 hens, 2 are easter eggers that always lay green and I get an egg out of one of the two every day. One week no green eggs. We tried keeping them in the coop to make sure they weren't laying else where and asked the neighbors to make sure they werent laying in their coop. Still day 8 no green eggs. They dont appear to be in distress however, they are fighting with all the other hens lately. Any suggestions?

What season are you going into? The stress of fighting can prevent you from getting any eggs. Were they fighting before they were locked up? If not start searching for hidden nests, I have seen them everywhere from grills to planting pots and trashcans with empty feed bags in them. Are any of your hens loosing feathers or weight? Are they consuming the same amount of feed or has it reduced?

 

[Ridgerunner]

More questions. What are the other three hens doing? Are they laying? Any change in them? Was it both green egg layers laying or just one? Did you ever get two green eggs in one day?

The main reason hens stop laying is the molt. Hidden nests rank up there reasonably high. Less common, especially if it is consistent, is that something is getting the eggs. Usually if something is getting the eggs its not real consistent. If a hen is broody she stops laying. A really rare problem is disease. Are they acting OK other than the fighting? Usually if they are sick they are lethargic, not active like fighting implies.

 

[angelinapackard]

We are in Oklahoma, going into spring. They were fighting before we kept them in the coop. We kept them in to see if they were laying elsewhere. They laid all winter, we keep a lamp on for the cold nights. They have to be laying somewhere else we just dont catch them. The wildlife is getting a nice feast im sure.

 

[angelinapackard]

Yes most days we would get two green eggs some days only one. We are getting three brown or two brown a day from the other three hens. They act normal, run around chase the cats everything is normal other than the puffing up their heads and kicking at each other. They dont even bother the other three just each other. One of them is starting to loose some feathers but just thinning not balding. I would like to keep them in the coop a few days they would have access to the caged area on the ground but that seems to stress everyone so much when I do that.