Hello I live in Sacramento California, its by no means cold yet. 90's in the daytime 60's at night this week dropping to 80's. But this is my first fall with chickens. This last week they dropped of laying. I have10 layers and was getting 10 or 11 eggs a day now they are down to 4 maybe 5. Any insight here for me ? Really appreciate it ! Penney
The days are getting shorter and it's molting season. Egg laying will drop off during wither of these times.
If you want to keep egg numbers up, you will have to put a light on 14 hours or so a day. If you don't use a light, the numbers will definitely drop off. Since you say this is your first fall with chickens, I'm assuming molt is not the problem.
I'm having the same problem up here in SW Washington. We have 4 two year old hens and we usually had 2-3 eggs per day this summer until Labor Day. That was when we collected our last single egg (after being gone for 3 days over the weekend). We have 2 buff Orpingtons that are obviously molting AGAIN (already did this in the spring) and 2 RIR's that have big, red combs and waddles but still no eggs. They even sit int he nesting box but run out of the coop after an hour leaving an empty pile of straw. It has been very dry and warm up here: we're gong on 2 months of no rain. They have had the same food for over a year and have 4 separate water sources so they always have water. Wondering if it's a combination of heat and feeling bad for their half naked yellow sisters?
