Eggs have stopped coming....

[stokesdalefunnyfarm]

OK, I've read other comments and still don't feel good about what's going on, so I'm going to ask. I have 9 hens, I had 10, but one died about two weeks ago. She was the same age as the others, which are less than a year old. Her comb went from red to light red, almost white. She ended up dying. We were getting 8-9 eggs everyday and then it dropped to 5-6 a day. Now, we are at 1 egg every other day. We put a heat lamp in the coop thinking that they were cold at night and that was the reason for not laying. This hasn't made any difference. We're in North Carolina, so it isn't cold yet. Any thoughts?


Thanks!!

Jonathan

 

[NonnasBabies]

First I would definetly remove the heat lamp cause they don't need that. You could try just putting a reg bulb and see if it's the amount of light that's affecting the laying. This time of year with the days getting shorter will do this!!

 

[bustermommy]

Have you checked for worms?

 

[stokesdalefunnyfarm]

No, I haven't checked for worms. This is my first flock, so I'm new to this. How do I check for worms?

 

[ladycutter]

I am fairly new to chickens, but not birds so take this with a grain of salt and of course keep looking for what is wrong until it makes sense that you have found it.

I am guessing your bird died of some type of anemia (lack of red blood cells) - this could be caused by many things but the first things that come to my mind is mites or lice that are so heavy that they literally sucked the blood out of your chicken - a little at a time...

Some mites / lice only come out at night so you don't see them during the day (like vampires!)...if you don't already do this I would get some food grade DE (Diatomaceous Earth) and carefully dust all your birds and strip the coop and nest boxes and dust them all as well - especially perches or anywhere there are cracks in the wood for them to hide. The DE will kill the mites / lice as they have soft bodies but will not harm your chickens or you.

It is a very fine powder so do be careful not to breathe in a lot of the dust (hence why you carefully put it on so as not to create a lot of dust with it).....

My first hens started losing feathers and turning pale and they had mites / lice...then I dusted and now they all look really good (except they are molting but that is typical in the fall). You can sprinkle a little bit of it in some mash for them to eat as well, that will kill internal parasites as well and even people will eat DE for worming.

Like most things that work well, don't over do it, but do get enough on them (I carefully rubbed into their feather to get it on their skin where the bugs were) so that it works, doing the coop where they live, sleep, eat, lay eggs, etc. is also a must and then put in new bedding. I didn't replace the bedding when I did it - I just moved it to one side and put the DE down then moved it over and did the other side, but then I only had 3 hens in a small chicken tractor but it still worked.

If that doesn't work, it is possible that chicken had something else wrong with it and it will be the only one to get sick / die...or you may have something else wrong with management, diet, etc. so keep reading and trying things until it gets better....

If you chickens are all molting right now (I am in Oregon and all my chickens are molting now) and only 1 out of 4 adult hens is laying at all, but they will start again when done molting.

Good luck !

Anne

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Here is the link to Speckled Hen's comprehensive 'sticky' about why hens may not be laying: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=423023

Sorry, if you've already read this.

 

[stokesdalefunnyfarm]

Anne,


Thank you for that information. We have dusted for mites several times, I will have to look and see what we used! I thought the decrease in eggs before was due to molting, but it doesn't appear that they are.

Thanks again!

Jonathan

 

[bustermommy]

You can check their poo for worms, but they can have worms that don't show up. A vet can test poo for worms, but a lot of people just worm in case. I think you are definitely looking at a parasitic load from something. The mites will be easiest to check for, so I'd check that first. Aah, see you did the mite thing already.

If you do a search for worming, you'll get a lot of hits; I can't think right now of the guy on here who is really an expert. I'll look and see if I can find a good link.

Found it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=183219


dawg53 is who I was thinking of. He did post on this thread.

 

[stokesdalefunnyfarm]

Bustermommy,

Thank you for your suggestion to look for worms! After one and half weeks of deworming, eggs have progressivly increased to us having 9 for 9 today!

Thanks again!

Jonathan