First molting... Still no eggs.

[Jezahu]

We got day old chicks (7 red star and 1 white leghorn) last April and they started laying in the Fall and they were doing great! We were getting an average of 10 eggs a day then it started getting cold and they slacked up to maybe one or two a day. We live in West Tennessee so it hasn't been really cold this winter. We've had a couple of dusting snows but it's been mostly warm. Anyway they molted and basically stopped laying and now they have all their feathers back but we still are only getting 3 eggs a day. I noticed today that three of our hens have very healthy red large combs and waddles and I think I read somewhere that you can tell who is laying by that. The rest of them have kind of small and pale looking combs and waddles.

Is that true? How can I get them to start laying again?

 

[LukensFarms]

Wait two months and they will start back up.

 

[ChucktheChick]

Yes in the spring they will start again. How do you get 10 eggs out of 8 chickens a day?

 

[my sunwolf]

Yes in the spring they will start again. How do you get 10 eggs out of 8 chickens a day?

This was my thought! Average is 50% of the flock will be laying at any given time. Seriously. Dead of winter you might have 0%, spring and fall you might have 90%, but it will average to about 50%. They don't lay more than one egg a day unless there's a hiccup in their system. And it is daylight hours, not temperature, that triggers both the molt and the lack of laying. You can either put a light in their coop to give them 14 hours of daylight, or let them have a rest and rejoice in the spring equinox when there will be more eggs. Though I have to say, I'm surprised at your red stars, they're usually laying machines!

 

[Jezahu]

I don't know why but we were getting at least one day from each and at least 4-5 times a week we got two more. We know that our white leghorn was laying them most of the time because she is the only or who lays white eggs.