Okay, here goes... About the the beginning of May my 22 laying hens started slowing down on their egg production. I had been getting anywhere from 15-19 eggs a day and it dropped, and quite suddenly, to 6-9 eggs a day.
Everyone looked fine, eating good, moving all around (I let them free range all day) drinking enough water, etc... In early March we built another coop and put our new chicks inside it in a booder, and we had also moved my young JG's that were raised by another hen into that coop, but like I said that was in early March, it's now May. However, now I had just started letting the new chicks out to free range with the big girls during the day, so maybe that was the problem. I'd give them some time to adjust.
May 30th (now I'm getting 9-11 eggs a day) I was searching for possible causes of my lack of eggs here on this site, and I came across an old thread suggesting it might be worms. While I was reading through the posts, one of the members suggested using cyanne pepper in the feed to worm them. Since I saw no signs of worms and all looked very healthy, I didn't want to use a harsh wormer on them. Others were also suggesting that black pepper or cyanne pepper could jump start egg production.
I saw no harm in trying that, so the next day I went to Sams Club and bought a large container of cyanne pepper (the powdery kind, not crushed red peppers) and one of black pepper, (the restraunt style kind).
June 1st, I put enough cyanne pepper in the feeders to make the crumbles look "rusty" as the the poster suggest to worm them. I then put a tsp of black and a tsp. of cyanne pepper on some cooked rice and noodles for them as a morning treat. I gave them that every other day, and on June 10th I again put the cyanne pepper in the feeder crumbles for the second round of worming. A side note, I left that pepper in the feeder until they finished that food up, and just added more without pepper then.)
During this time egg production was getting better, 13, then 15, and finally up to 17. Last night, June 15th, I got 19 from the 22 hens that should, or could be laying right now.
I don't know if they finally got use to the new pullets, or if they had worms, or if the pepper revved up the egg production, but I do know 19 eggs is a lot better than 9 eggs! So, I'm going to keep the pepper around and remember it for next time.
Hope this little story can help out someone else sometime!
Everyone looked fine, eating good, moving all around (I let them free range all day) drinking enough water, etc... In early March we built another coop and put our new chicks inside it in a booder, and we had also moved my young JG's that were raised by another hen into that coop, but like I said that was in early March, it's now May. However, now I had just started letting the new chicks out to free range with the big girls during the day, so maybe that was the problem. I'd give them some time to adjust.
May 30th (now I'm getting 9-11 eggs a day) I was searching for possible causes of my lack of eggs here on this site, and I came across an old thread suggesting it might be worms. While I was reading through the posts, one of the members suggested using cyanne pepper in the feed to worm them. Since I saw no signs of worms and all looked very healthy, I didn't want to use a harsh wormer on them. Others were also suggesting that black pepper or cyanne pepper could jump start egg production.
I saw no harm in trying that, so the next day I went to Sams Club and bought a large container of cyanne pepper (the powdery kind, not crushed red peppers) and one of black pepper, (the restraunt style kind).
June 1st, I put enough cyanne pepper in the feeders to make the crumbles look "rusty" as the the poster suggest to worm them. I then put a tsp of black and a tsp. of cyanne pepper on some cooked rice and noodles for them as a morning treat. I gave them that every other day, and on June 10th I again put the cyanne pepper in the feeder crumbles for the second round of worming. A side note, I left that pepper in the feeder until they finished that food up, and just added more without pepper then.)
During this time egg production was getting better, 13, then 15, and finally up to 17. Last night, June 15th, I got 19 from the 22 hens that should, or could be laying right now.
I don't know if they finally got use to the new pullets, or if they had worms, or if the pepper revved up the egg production, but I do know 19 eggs is a lot better than 9 eggs! So, I'm going to keep the pepper around and remember it for next time.
Hope this little story can help out someone else sometime!
