Hens quit laying?!!!!

[blucoondawg]

I don't know what the heck is going on with my chickens. I have 24 chickens, 2 roosters 22 hens Just over 1 year old. Up until last weekend we were getting a decent number of eggs, anywhere from 10 to 20 per day, now all a sudden they have up and stopped laying, I don't understand it. The last few weeks I have started free ranging daily in my large fenced yard, and I did find one clutch of eggs hidden in the brush outside but it was only 4 eggs, I searched high and low and cannot find any more anywhere. I am down to 3 to 5 eggs per day now, also the shells are thin, and today I had a shell less egg. I don't know what is going on. Since free ranging they have cut down on their layer feed obviously so I thought maybe they were calcium deficient so I have made sure to keep the oyster shells full.

Last weekend I treated the flock for lice/mites because they were quite rough looking, I cleaned out the coop and went in after dusk and dusted all the birds, also I had a flock of chicks living in the coop separated by a chicken wire divider, I removed the divider that day when I cleaned out the coop as well and fully integrated the flock, they were used to being near each other and seemed to get along fine. So I don't know what the issue is, if the dusting in combination with cleaning out the coop and turning the chicks loose with them stressed them out or what. I have noticed in the past that when the coop gets cleaned the hens fuss a little but I have never had them all but stop laying. I am about at my wits end with them, I expect them to at least lay enough to pay for their food and right now it isn't happening.

Oh I forgot to mention my breeds are a mix I picked out of brown egg layers from McMurray and a few easter eggers, who are the only ones still laying, I get 2 or 3 green eggs most days, it's the brown ones that are the issue, I have no high production hybrids, all "pure breeds" or as pure as they get from a hatchery anyways. My chicks I turned in with them are a batch I hatched from my McMurray hens, but they won't be laying until late August or Early September, I sure hope my other hens kick back in soon.

Any one ever had an issue like this before?

 

[aart]

I have seen a drop in production the last month, without the significant changes you have made in management. It was very hot and humid for a couple weeks, this last week has cooled off wonderfully but still production is down.

I think with the combo of all the things going on in your flock, it's not surprising.

Biggest thing I wonder about is the new free ranging and the clutch you found. From what I've read they are very, very, very sneaky at hiding nests. I'd try confining them to the coop for a couple days if you can, or at least until mid afternoons and see if that make's a difference.

Any possibility they are molting? Curious, did you use supplemental lighting last winter?

Just my thoughts, hope something helps......Best of Luck to you!

 

[blucoondawg]

They aren't hidng them outside, I would have found them, I have been keeping them in the run for a couple days now and it hasn't mattered. They free ranged for a few weeks already with no effect on production, if anything it may have improved until last weekend or early this last week. Last winter I didn't provide light except for the nights it got under -20 degrees and then I turned on a red heat lamp overnight, even with the limited light and severe cold they still laid more than they are right now.

As far as molting, I have no idea. I thought maybe they were a couple weeks ago because they were looking extra rough but their feathers have actually been looking rough for some time now, since free ranging they have found good dust bath areas and most likely getting more protein from bugs and such so they seemed to be improving in that respect though some are still shabby looking. It is hard for me to tell if they are molting, in all the years we had chickens even going back to when I was a kid we never experienced hard core molts where the chickens were almost bald, that would be easy to tell if that were the case. I have just never experienced this level of decline in production, not in the summer when the weather is mild for the most part.

From what I read a laying cycle for young hens usually lasts 50-60 weeks, my hens began laying in early October of last year, so they should go another month or 2 before then end of a cycle. I don't know it is just weird.

 

[aart]

Hmmm..it is frustrating for sure...are all their combs and wattles plump and brilliant waxy red?. After 9 months of having chooks I have just been able to really notice the difference between laying hens and non laying hens. I have one I'm sure is molting, and not laying, her comb is smaller, much paler and dryer looking than the others.

 

[blucoondawg]

Some are more red than others I guess. Never paid much attention to their combs. Both roosters have very nice red combs many of the hens ate more pink than brilliant red

 

[aart]

Look closely, you might be able to tell who's laying and who isn't.

 

[blucoondawg]

I know for sure they ate an egg today. There were 5 eggs in the coop earlier in the afternoon I told my wife there were 5 and to go collect eggs in a couple hours and if there's less than 5 then they must have eaten them. There were only 4 at collection time and a wet out where the other egg was setting. I'm going to have to figure out which one of doing that