Hens laying smaller eggs

[lclough1998]

Over the past 2 weeks my 15 girls eggs have been getting increasingly smaller and now we aren't getting as many eggs. They are in their 1st. And 2nd year of laying. We had a little hot weather and I thought that was the problem but now it's cool again and still small eggs. feeding Payback layer pellets, sprouted sunflower seeds boss and scraps from the kitchen. they live in a hoop coop with about 1/5th acre to run around with 2 goats. these are some things I am going to to try to do this weekend to help to get the eggs bigger :

Hoop coop needs it dirt floor cleaned up
Sulmet in water for parasites
Poultry powder for bugs

Feel free to comment any of this, or any thoughts of anything else I can do. Thanks!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Sulmet is kind of hard on chickens...unless you are sure you need to dose them with that, I'd not do it. It may cause them to stop laying (my experience with giving meds that are hard on hens). If you are doing it for cocci, grown hens should be immune to cocci that are in the soil they are on right now. Just my opinion...you are the expert of your chickens so if you think it is good go right ahead.

Have you seen diarrhea or any signs of illness?

Also with the Poultry dust, make sure that you redust them at 7 days for mites and 14 days for lice. Also treat the coop and get rid of nest box shavings and bedding (if you have an infestation), since if I don't do that they come right back. There are mites that can just live in the coop crevices and come out at night, so coop treatment is a good idea.

I think you might want to increase the protein in their diets. More protein = larger eggs.

 

[lclough1998]

That's why I posted before I did any thing, just not sure. I haven't seen any sign of diearia. They look great, I have seen some sort of bugs on some of the birds and will do the coop and the birds at the same time. I think I will skip the sulmet and feed them some cat food, although I would have thought they were getting enough protein with the sprouts. I can't leave their food outside the coop, the goats will eat it all. They do get oyster shell aside from their food and there isn't any greens in their area. We had to move them in together due to new neighbors issue and its not what I would have chosen for them but it's working. I appreciate your thoughts.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

That's why I posted before I did any thing, just not sure. I haven't seen any sign of diearia. They look great, I have seen some sort of bugs on some of the birds and will do the coop and the birds at the same time. I think I will skip the sulmet and feed them some cat food, although I would have thought they were getting enough protein with the sprouts. I can't leave their food outside the coop, the goats will eat it all. They do get oyster shell aside from their food and there isn't any greens in their area. We had to move them in together due to new neighbors issue and its not what I would have chosen for them but it's working. I appreciate your thoughts.

Oh good, no diarrhea. You can give them very short grass clippings for greens- they would love it. I feed 2-3 inch long or shorter clippings (or some from the lawnmower which are even shorter) to them and they just eat them all up!

If you are delivering some greens to your goats (branches) - you can also deliver some grass clippings to the chickens LOL. Or even alfalfa hay- the chickens will eat the leaves off the alfalfa (impacted crop can occur if they eat lots of long hay, as it winds around inside the crop so be cautious). Alfalfa hay is sooo expensive though. I tried it once and it made me so itchy.

Cat food is OK, some swear by it. Others say not to feed it long-term as it can be unhealthy. I have fed it before. I think it can be a good boost.

 

[lclough1998]

We do give them the lawn clipping now that hubby is mowing again, they love that. I feed the goats orchard grass and every now and then see the chickens trying it, I throw large size grit into their area so I am just praying for no impacted crops. I have a great feeder for the goats, they stick their noses into eat rather than pull the hay out so it's not too bad. Thanks for your post.

 

[lclough1998]

Where do you live, I see we must be neighbors with y our reference to Pacific northwest where the fir trees grow.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Where do you live, I see we must be neighbors with y our reference to Pacific northwest where the fir trees grow.

We live in SW Washington. Love it here!

 

[DanEP]

You might try switching them to a grower feed for awhile and see if that helps. I keep my layers on 18% protein grower all the time with oyster shell on the side. It is a 50 min ate drive for me to get the grower I prefer and I have run out on occasion and had to feed them dumor layer until I have a chance to make the run for the grower. One thing I am sure of the grower gives me fewer and smaller eggs within a couple of days. When I switch back it seems to take a few days for things to get back to normal.You might try the higher protein for awhile and see if it helps and the extra protein won't hurt your girls.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

the grower gives me fewer and smaller eggs within a couple of days. When I switch back it seems to take a few days for things to get back to normal.You might try the higher protein for awhile and see if it helps and the extra protein won't hurt your girls.

The grower gives you smaller eggs? Or the layer?

 

[DanEP]

The layer, the eggs are smaller and the girls seem to look better and are in good general condition with the grower. I pay about 1 1/2 dollars more for the grower but to me the larger and higher number of eggs makes it a wash.maybe it's just this flock but I know when feeding layer I go from 24 -26 eggs a day down to 20 -21 a day and most of my girls are laying extra large to jumbo on the grower. This drops to mostly large on the layer feed.