I have 4 adult (laying) chickens and 3 younger hens who have not begun to lay yet. Out of the 4 adults i usually get three eggs a day plus an occasionaly "fart"egg. Now I am only getting one egg a day and yesterday i didn't get any??? Any ideas? Nothing has changed with their enviroment or feed or anything. Help!
My first thought is that it's gotten into the hot dog days of summer, and that will make them slow down. That's the easy idea. The second idea is a little more involvoed. At our coop, when they stop laying it's time to check for worms. Just hang out with the peeps, and when one poos, take a look and see if there are little white dots (sometimes moving, blech!) There are lots of threads around here for how to treat them, it's not too hard and usually they'll pick up laying steady again pretty soon.
summer heat, beginning of moult, disease/worms, snakes getting in the coop, or hiding eggs (beginnings of being broody) would be my guesses. good luck!
It could be the heat. My pullets don't lay as much when its hot (around 100+ degrees F). I've also read that feeding chickens fruits can cause them to not lay as much, but there are people who feed their chickens fruits everyday and are laying fine. Have you checked around your coop area to see if they have laid their eggs somewhere else? I've had a pullet who would lay her egg in the nesting box, but there has been a couple of times where she has laid her egg on the floor in the corner of the coop.... don't know why she did that... but she hasn't done it since... and I have more than enough nesting boxes...
