What I've got going on is my hens just stopped laying eggs. I have ten beautiful healthy ladies, and over the last 21/2 months my egg production has gone from 6-8 per day to 1 a day. They eat twice a day 16%crumbles in the morning and scratch in the early afternoon plus what they eat while ranging on our 21/2 acres. I have a variety of breeds and a great rooster to protect them and keep them in line. They live in a barn, dirt floor, cleaned regularly, always have plenty of water. I'm totally lost, and any comments or help would be greatly appreciated.
It's winter silly, not enough light in the day, it will get better, after the 21 st of this month we start gaining daylight again
How old are your hens? and what breeds are we talking? I'm guessing it's just time to take a break. Most hens, especially non-production breeds or hens after their first winter, take the winter off. I have about 2 dozen freeloaders, I mean hens, and am thrilled if I get 4 eggs a day. Patiently waiting for longer days!
I agree with the rest about the declining daylight being your issue. I do want to make sure of one thing--you know that scratch isn't chicken feed, right? It's only meant to be fed as a treat and does not have the nutritional value of your crumbles. Basically, it's chicken candy. Also, all the research I've read says to give layer hens free-choice access to layer feed instead of feeding a set amount each day, as cycling a chicken's feed can throw off her egglaying and all those different breeds of chickens you have will require differing amounts of feed daily.
WalkingOnSunshine has got it spot on - if your girls are free-ranging then you can happily give them free-choice access to layer feed all day long. They will come and eat it when they need to, and complement it with what they get free-ranging, but they are very unlikely to overeat crumbles with 2 1/2 acres to wander around in. It is only in an enclosed coop with not much else to do that they need to have their feed quantities controlled - I would imagine that they are much the same as us - cooped up and bored they will tend to eat for want of something to do! I would also agree with everyone else that the short winter days are causing your lack of eggs. By pure chance I got a black star (black sex-link if you prefer) as one of my 3 girls, and she is the only one who has still been consistently laying in the last 2 months. Without her I would be faced with the prospect of having to succumb to pale, horrible supermarket eggs
Anyway...does anyone elses chickens stand right out in the rain? Some of mine just keep peckin like nothings wrong.
