Hens out of water for an afternoon - how long before egg production returns to normal?

[MedChicken]

Hello all! My water system is in limbo right now (switching to a nipple waterer). During the transition, they are getting their water from a five-gallon bucket. The little ones (2-3mos) perch on the rim and have plenty of water, but when the water level dropped the laying hens ended up without water for at least an afternoon and possibly a day and a half until I realized they couldn't reach the water in the bucket.

Egg production dropped from 8-9 eggs/day to 2-3 eggs/day and has stayed there for the past three days.

Naturally the water situation has been resolved, but now I'm wondering how long it will take for my flock to recover and egg production to return to normal.

Does anyone know? Thanks!

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

Ouch! When my hens ran out of water one day, that happened, soon the eggs became shell-less. Try not to let water everrun out, if the egg bursts inside it can be ugly... But if the eggs are hard shelled I wouldn't worry as much as if they were shell-less.

 

[MedChicken]

The eggs that I am getting are perfectly normal (if perhaps a bit small), but there are only 2 a day and they are coming from the same 2 hens. Maybe the other ones are still on strike because of the cold snap that hit at the same time?

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

The others could be stressed out, usually stressed out ones will stop laying for a bit. When my hen was terrified in a corner by this bobcat who caught one of my hens and tried eating her there 3 feet away, all a sudden had runny poops and started molting the next day drastically!

Tell me when the hen will start laying again.