- Dec 13, 2008
- 23
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Ok, so I have 3 Comet hens and 5 Brown Leghorns. Other than one Americauna (Or some mutt) Rooster, they have a whole henhouse to themselves. They have not gone outside for almost 5 months now (It has been brutally cold), but I have lamps on them all the time (2 red heat lamps and one white heat lamp) So they have continued to lay. They were being fed a 14% layer feed, as well as free choice oyster shell. Obviously they have water. Recently, however, we have run out of Layer feed, so they are just getting cracked corn. They also were out of water for a day or so, but this has happened before.
We were getting about 6-7 eggs a day, but suddenly a few days ago we dropped down to one egg/ day. What could have caused this?
I don't think that we have an egg eater- although whenever I pick up an egg they all come running over and look at it longingly, they never have shown any intrest in eggs as food items before, until I have them in my hand. (Yes, I have fed them frozen-cracked eggs before, shame on me) Also, there are no shell fragments or yolk smears, either on the floor or on their beaks.
They do not appear to be moulting either.
I have not changed their lighting conditions.
There might be external parasites in there, as we but a peacock in there for a few of the coldest days a few months back and after we noticed he had these little light tan bugs crawling around his head. We bed with straw, so I wouldn't be surprised (We do mean to dust them with this powder we have to kill external parasites on birds) But this wouldn't cause them to all stop laying at the same time, would it?
Any ideas? They all appear healthy. I would really like to figure out how to fix it- or atleast figure out what is going on-we have a customer who is wondering where his eggs are.
Thanks in advance.
We were getting about 6-7 eggs a day, but suddenly a few days ago we dropped down to one egg/ day. What could have caused this?
I don't think that we have an egg eater- although whenever I pick up an egg they all come running over and look at it longingly, they never have shown any intrest in eggs as food items before, until I have them in my hand. (Yes, I have fed them frozen-cracked eggs before, shame on me) Also, there are no shell fragments or yolk smears, either on the floor or on their beaks.
They do not appear to be moulting either.
I have not changed their lighting conditions.
There might be external parasites in there, as we but a peacock in there for a few of the coldest days a few months back and after we noticed he had these little light tan bugs crawling around his head. We bed with straw, so I wouldn't be surprised (We do mean to dust them with this powder we have to kill external parasites on birds) But this wouldn't cause them to all stop laying at the same time, would it?
Any ideas? They all appear healthy. I would really like to figure out how to fix it- or atleast figure out what is going on-we have a customer who is wondering where his eggs are.
Thanks in advance.