Fewer and fewer eggs... what is going on?

[FingerLakesChick]

I have 11 layers. They've been laying regularly since last November. During the winter I would gety 8 to 11 eggs every day. Then this spring it changed to about 7-9 per day...and now I'm lucky if I get 6 a day... sometimes it's only 3 per day!! They get layer feed, 24/7 access to oyster shell and they free-range all day. I have noticed it seems that only the RIR's (6) are in the nesting boxes during the day (laying). I have 3 L Brahmas and 2 Black Giants... maybe they're just not big layers? Or is because they're free-ranging? Or could there be a clutch of eggs hidden someplace? Could someone help me solve the mystery? Or is this the right ratio? It's not that my DH and I really need more eggs, but our friends and family do!!

 

[keljonma]

Are any of your ladies molting now? We have a few that have been molting for a couple weeks now, so we're down a few eggs p/week.

If not molting, it could be they are laying them out in the field. I have a couple pullets that love to lay in the back pasture in the grass matted down by the deer.

Check any hiding spots in outbuildings. Our Gold Penciled Hamburg loves to lay behind the stack of spare pallets in one of our unused stalls.

Boy, do I have bad chickens or what?

If you have eliminated these possibilities, I can suggest these...

-how has the weather been? Hot weather seems to slow them down a bit....

-check them for crawlies....

-check if you have wild birds hanging out by the hen house. We had sparrow really bad this spring and the ladies refused to use the nest boxes until we fixed the problem.

I'm sure someone else will chime in with some other suggestions....

When our Jersey Black Giant hen isn't broody or raising chicks, she lays about 4 or 5 eggs a week.

Good luck!

 

[FingerLakesChick]

YES! One of my L. Brahmas is molting right now and before that she was broody for about 2 weeks. She wasn't sitting on any eggs and I was concerned for her health, so I broke her of the broodiness. So that would explain -1 egg. I only see my RIR's in the nesting boxes during the day too! It's like the white and black girls are holding out on me! The other 2 L. Brahmas molted way back in the Spring, would they still be not laying from that? The weather has actually been fair. We've had quite a lot of rain, but it's been mostly in the mid to upper 70's so I don't believe it's heat related. It's hot today though - and when I went home for lunch I had 3 eggs and 1 RIR in a box. I plan to go on an egg hunt tonite. How would I know if they had creepy crawlies? I don't see anything... they dust bathe every day and I do put DE in their bedding to keep things nice and dry. Some of the ladies have bare bottoms, or patchy I should say - but they're the ones laying so

.

Good luck with yours! Sounds like your's are just as spoiled rotten as mine are!!


I do do something naughty - they get 3 ears of sweet corn to share almost every day and sunflower seeds in their layer feed... and it looks like they pick out the sunflower seeds and fling the feed all over the place insteadof eating it

. So maybe they're not getting enough layer feed?

 

[Hen Daddy]

I have heard that corn is not good for them. Maybe someone else with more info can chime in.