Girls gettin lazy? Or just spoiled...

[shastagoose]

Our girls are 3 years old. They have an AWESOME coop and lots of room to roam. Mama gives them goodies..lettuce , carrots, ect, daily. The last month, they have slowed down. 7 hens, 2 eggs a day. Are we filling them up with goodies? OK.. we stopped giving them goodies, now... no eggs.

. are they just spoiled?

 

[magsrags]

Unfortunately.............hens past 18 mos. to 2 years old slow down appreciably in the egg laying department unless they are "super hens".

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[pgpoultry]

Some hens stop laying by the time they are 3 (usually the hybrid hens developed for egg laying), but most continue a good deal longer. Pure breed hens often continue to lay after 5years of age.

If your hens are overweight, haven't been wormed, have lice, are moulting etc. this may be the cause for non-laying as may extremes of temperature (I think you have a heatwave right now).

Try to correct any of the above problems and you may well find they return to lay unless they are egg-laying hybrids.

 

[janinepeters]

I would say that is pretty normal laying rate for birds of that age at this time of year. Maybe a little lower than normal, but not much. I would say they have slowed down because the spring surge is over. In my experience, they slow down earlier in summer, the older they are, and they start up later in spring, the older they are.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Agree with other posters. A healthy, disease free, standard hen lays 180-200 eggs a year, at her peak. At the three year mark, that normally drops to around 100-150 eggs per year. Those number equate to every other day, when young, to every third day as they age, or a good spurt in spring with weeks of virtual non-laying at other times.

Yes, the commercial hybrids lay 320+ eggs per year, but that tails off considerably after the second year. The hybrids don't actually "stop" in most cases, but the fall-off contrast is so noticeable it just seems like it.

Finally, the heat of summer takes its toll, of course.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other posts. The heat may be a factor especially with the older girls. My older ones have slowed up too lately. We had a week of some cooler weather and the eggs picked up. Now we are back to hot and they have slowed down again I have 11 older girls and was getting 7 or 8 eggs daily and lately I have been getting 3 or 4 eggs daily from them. My younger birds are still laying ok. Out of 22 pullets I have been getting around 18 eggs daily and i was getting 20/21 eggs daily. I just sold several of the older birds that were laying good and now that the heat is back and the other have slowed down my buyers probably think I sold them some duds. The pullets I sold are probably still doing ok. I raise RIRs, RIWs and Isa Browns. I have some 18 week old RIRs that haven't started laying yet. They haven't even started squatting yet.

 

[ranchhand]

I am getting no eggs at all out of 12 hens right now- between the heat and the thieving rat snakes, I don't stand a chance!