HELP!!! It's spring and my chickens won't lay!

[cwbyzgrl09]

I have had my chickens for months. Some we raised from chicks and some we received from a family member. A total of 17 hens. Over the winter (I live in La. And this winter was NOT cold) they laid 3-5 eggs a day. We had a heat lamp on them all night. And they never molted.

About a moth ago, right before the time change, we were gathering 10-12 eggs a day!! No change in diet at all since summer. We keep the house, yard, and nests clean. They get wormed, oyster shell, laying pellets, scratch, and high protein cattle feed. Again, the same diet since summer. And they still haven't molted... We are getting 1 egg a day now!!! 1!!!

What is going wrong? I've tried everything! Even leaving a light on later in the evening to see if their days are off! I cannot afford their food without the money for the eggs we sell to put back into it. Plus, my customers are becoming impatient!

Someone, please help me. This is my first flock. I'm clueless!

 

[bobbi-j]

Any chance you could have rats getting into your coop? That happened to me once. I noticed a huge reduction in production, but increase in feed consumption. Couldn't figure out what was going on until that spring when I was cleaning the coop , and noticed a couple of holes in the floor. Then a rat popped its head out one hole, and another rat popped out of the other. They had been living under there all winter, nice and cozy, stealing my hens' eggs and eating their feed. The coop was not elevated - just on the ground. How about snakes? Do you have snakes that could have access to your nest boxes?

 

[cwbyzgrl09]

Thank you for the info. I have been keeping a watchful eye out for any sign of snakes or rats. Haven't seen anything... It's interesting though... One nest stays nice and neat where they are laying and the other nests are turned "upside down!" Nearly every day. It's like they get in the nests, and scratch around. But the nest they do lay in is nice an neat.

I have put a night light in there to see if they were just used to more light during the winter due to the heat lamp. Gonna give that a try for a few days and see.

But I'm still open to suggestions! Thank you!