Eggs!!!! then... no eggs??

[worthy vessel]

Help needed! We have about 25 chickens, dominiques, silver-laced, partridge rocks, white rocks, buffs, black austrolorps. We bought them one day old in February. They started laying in July and beginning of August... we were getting 18 to 20 eggs a day!! Then a drastic, almost immediate drop... one day 18, the next day 9, then 5, then 3... and then ZERO... that was the last week of August. We have had NO EGGS since then.

There was no change in food or light and I cannot see any sickness.

Does anyone have any ideas about this...

 

[chickeydee]

hi do your birds free range ? If so look around ,I have 30 birds and mine stop laying in the coop ,and I was outside today and found 100 eggs in my sofa hidden .I could not believe it .If yours do look all over the place in holes under trees etc . Good Luck .

 

[worthy vessel]

Yes, they are free range. We let them out in the morning and they put themselves up at night. Then we close the door and open in the morning. There is a fenced in run that they can use. I have thought about that and sometimes look and sometimes watch as they are scratching in the yard.

I can't believe you found 100 eggs. That is what I should find.

The other thing I have done is keep then closed up so they are in the house and run only for several days and still..... NO EGGS

 

[steward]

Hi Worthy, maybe they are molting? It seems like I've read most molt earlier in the summer-fall,but I had one batch molt late fall once. Different things can trigger it.
If they free range it may be hard to see it. I did not notice if you say where you are ,but here the day length is shorter already, and I have already started adding light in the coop with a standard light bulb. Good luck!

 

[RlgNorth]

I dont have any advice but my wanted to jump in and say my chickens are starting to do the same thing. I got 16 eggs one day that is the most but now it has slowly decreased to about 9 and one day only got 6 I sure hope mine dont stop or are hidding them I have huge run for them and I have checked every place for eggs. And none of them are molting.. I think with me it is the wheather up here winter hits pretty hard when it finally does plus we loose 7 min of daylight a day.I should have 21 egg layers. and still some of them havn't started and they are beyond 6 months old

 

[thechickenchick]

You are not alone! It seems every day there is at least 2 new threads on this same topic lately. I am having the same problem here , 20 plus hens and I might get 2 eggs a day. I think it may just be the time of year, although this didn't happen to me last year!

 

[roocrazy]

i have 40 hens and i havn't got an egg since the first week of sept.

 

[thechickenchick]

Quote:

I know how you feel. Then you have to go to town and spend $ on feed..................................



I all ready collected my 1 egg for the day!