Hens not laying consistently

[HSMomma3]

Hey BYC'ers!
I'm certainly not an expert, but not a total newbie either... we have been raising backyard chickens for around 7-8 years now. I will try to include all the details that might help... Here goes. We have 27 laying hens and one rooster, a few different breeds - BO, BA, RIR, NHR, and Leghorn - rooster is a BA. We have them in an elevated chicken house that is 10'x12', with 10 nesting boxes and 40' of roost poles. Their fenced-in run is roughly 40'x30', though they are able to live free range on our property (with both woods and pasture near their coop) on average 4-5 days a week. We use the deep-litter method in the house, with flake size pine shavings, and a generous helping of DE in the house and in the nest boxes, as well as DE in their dust-bathing holes under the house. We have not had any issues with mites in over 6 years. So. I'm looking for suggestions as to why we aren't getting eggs very consistently. With previous flocks, we have typically been able to count on an egg a day from every girl during the summers, obviously less in the winter... Until 2015, we lived on a different farm, our chicken house was a little smaller (8x12), and our flock was smaller (12-16 girls). With our current flock, we struggle to get 16-18 eggs a day, from 27 girls. Sometimes as few as 10, but typically around 14 eggs a day. Any suggestions? Would they do better with a second rooster, since there are 27 girls? Is our house too small? About half of these girls are one year old, and the other half are two or three years old. I have read several threads about this issue, and over the three years that we have lived on this farm, we have tried many suggestions - we have culled smaller girls (after checking the width of their "hips" and vent area), we have gotten new chicks hoping for better layers, we have added additional feeders, additional drinkers, they have free choice grit and shell, I've tried to be more consistent with letting them free range, we have changed their feed to higher protein, we have increased the amount of kitchen scraps that we give them, nothing has given us anything near the egg count we should have. Anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance!! I know this BYC community will not let me down

 

[Chicka_deee]

Well to start off, how big this your yard, is it a big forest and big property because they might be laying somewhere else. Also some chickens sometimes just don’t lay and only lay maybe 2-4 eggs a week.

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

Adding another rooster will make them lay less because they will be stressed

 

[SueT]

Stop giving them kitchen scraps. They may like it but it dilutes the nutrition needed for egg production.
3 yr olds lay less eggs. Each year eggs decrease.
Tell us what kind of feed you are buying.
And, since they are free ranging, as has already been suggested, some of them may have hidden nests.

 

[HSMomma3]

Well to start off, how big this your yard, is it a big forest and big property because they might be laying somewhere else. Also some chickens sometimes just don’t lay and only lay maybe 2-4 eggs a week.

As far as laying in a hidden nest, I have thought about that too, but I don't think it's our main problem. I say that because, we did have them mostly "penned up" for the first year or so - we had a dog that had a taste for chicken, so we could only let them out in the afternoons for a few hours while the dogs were inside. We actually thought at first that they were laying more eggs when they had more free-range time, but that isn't consistent either. But to answer the question, yes, that's possible. We live on a 40-acre farm, and their house is tucked just into the tree line of our back pasture. They could be laying in the underbrush. We have looked in the areas where we see them dust bathing, or "hanging around", and have never seen any eggs laid outside of the house.

As far as only laying 2-4 per week, do you mean some breeds of chickens? or some chickens in any breed only lay that much? We chose these breeds because we "read" that they were supposed to be the best layers. Maybe not? Which breeds would you recommend?

 

[HSMomma3]

Stop giving them kitchen scraps. They may like it but it dilutes the nutrition needed for egg production.
3 yr olds lay less eggs. Each year eggs decrease.
Tell us what kind of feed you are buying.
And, since they are free ranging, as has already been suggested, some of them may have hidden nests.

Yes, we're considering culling the oldest girls (3 year-olds) and getting new chicks. But our struggle is that, even when the first girls were just one year old, we have never been able to achieve and egg a day -or even close- from this flock. I'm worried that maybe they just don't lay regularly when the flock is this big. (?)

We currently feed them Dumor brand from Tractor Supply, layer pellets. We have tried the higher protein bag, but after 6 months or so with no change, we went back. We used a feed called "feather fixer" (I think that was Layena) for a few months after what seemed like a hen-pecking issue with bare backs. Def helped with the feathers, but it didn't seem to affect the egg production.

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

I was in this situation last year. I gave away all but 5 hens and kept the five in a smaller coop and got about 20 chicks and raised them in the main coop. Once the chicks were laying I got rid of the five hens. I got half of the chickens I wanted long term and now I get chicks yearly so I have a balance of hens under a year old and hens under 2 years old. Every year I get rid of the oldest batch. Right now I have 13 hens and 1 too and 25 chicks in the brooder.

 

[SueT]

we have never been able to achieve and egg a day -or even close-

I don't think you can expect an egg a day from most chickens. 5 a week is very good. You might get 6-7 weekly from sex links but they burn out faster. Of the breeds you list, I've had RIR, BA, BO, leghorns. None of them achieved 6 a week consistently, even my leghorns. My BO gave me at most, 4 a week.

 

[Chicka_deee]

I love chickens, I keep them for their eggs until they stop, and then they are lovely pets. We used to have a rooster but he Attacked Is so we got rid of him, also we would of kept him as a pet, (yes maybe a waste of money/food) if he didn’t attack. For me, chickens are just pets and eggs are something they give us in return for the food....

 

[Stephine]

I think expecting an egg a day isbreally unrealistic. There might be some breeds used in laying batteries, like leghorn, that can do that for a year and a half, but most chickens won’t. Good layers will give you 5-6 eggs a week in the first year or two, others more like 4-5. In their third year the egg production will go back quite a bit. From 10 3 yr olds and 1 2 yr old I am getting about 5 eggs a day now.
I have read in several places that people had trouble with Dumor - you might want to try a different brand, but I don’t believe that’s the culprit.