We had 34 chickens with only 19 being age laying hens so I thought I would get around 10 eggs a day since the hens were all around a year old. The most I ever got was 11, for 2 days. When egg production dropped to 2 a day I got rid of some hens I didn't care for and thought were causing problems in the hen house. Now we have 21 hens and get 1 egg a day. (11 are too young to lay and 1 is a rooster so that leaves 10 hens being the right age to lay who are not molting)
I have customers waiting for eggs and every day I go out there just sure that this is the day the spell will be broken and my girls will be kicked back into gear but no. I get 1 egg. Occasionally 2 and one time last week I got 3.
None of my 5 EE are laying at all when they were the most regular layers.
I thought we had another skunk but that's not the case either.
I thought they had bugs bothering them so I spent $40 on DE and dusted them, the run, the coop, the laying boxes. Nothing.
I thought maybe they weren't getting enough food so I fed them more. Now there's leftovers. (I feed them 20% layer pellets and oyster shells)
I thought I might be giving them too many treats so I cut that down. Now they don't run to me when they see me coming which makes me even more depressed.
I thought the rooster might be bothering them because he seemed to be grumpy for a few days but he's back to his friendly self of offering them up food and calling them over to investigate new things. No more running hens down only to peck them on the back.
It's not too hot yet (it was in the 60s today).
They have enough water every day (I tripled the amount of water in the run so they don't run out).
What am I missing?
I have customers waiting for eggs and every day I go out there just sure that this is the day the spell will be broken and my girls will be kicked back into gear but no. I get 1 egg. Occasionally 2 and one time last week I got 3.
None of my 5 EE are laying at all when they were the most regular layers.
I thought we had another skunk but that's not the case either.
I thought they had bugs bothering them so I spent $40 on DE and dusted them, the run, the coop, the laying boxes. Nothing.
I thought maybe they weren't getting enough food so I fed them more. Now there's leftovers. (I feed them 20% layer pellets and oyster shells)
I thought I might be giving them too many treats so I cut that down. Now they don't run to me when they see me coming which makes me even more depressed.
I thought the rooster might be bothering them because he seemed to be grumpy for a few days but he's back to his friendly self of offering them up food and calling them over to investigate new things. No more running hens down only to peck them on the back.
It's not too hot yet (it was in the 60s today).
They have enough water every day (I tripled the amount of water in the run so they don't run out).
What am I missing?