low egg #'s

[PhlyinPheBee]

My gals have are one strike i think. I have 12 laying hens and this week i have gotten 4,4,4,3. They used to have a 6-7 a day avg. It is warmer here and i thought they would love it. also i have been giving them more free range time out of their yard and no they are not laying out there.

What's up with them????

 

[4wdingman]

what breed are they? and how old are they?

 

[OccamsTazer]

I was finding strangely low egg yields too.

Then I looked under the coop

 

[SandRun]

I'm having the same problem, after I thought I had it fixed. I went through this in December, so I added a light and in January I was getting similar numbers as I was in August. I have seven hens and was averaging 5-6 a day. Now I'm back down to 2-4 a day. I can't figure it out so I'm just going to let nature take its course. I'm also adding 5 Barred Rocks to the flock of 7 Buff Orpington hens and 1 rooster.

 

[trunkman]

I've also had a drop in production, I was getting 4 to 5 from 6 hens, in the past few weeks I'm only getting 2 to 3 eggs a day and my girls are only 1 year old...

 

[Kittymomma]

Molting? Egg eater? Hidden nest? Diet? Those four are the usual suspects. You would be amazed at how adept they can be at hiding nests, two of my girls will actually bury their eggs in debri. If you can I'd lock them in for a few days and see if that helps. You may have to spend a day in the coop to figure it out if you have an egg eater.

 

[PhlyinPheBee]

My #'s are still way down. I have one broody and 1 molting. Now I have 13 hens and get 2-3 eggs a day. I have been checking for eggs several times a day. only had one day that one get broke. I hope everyone's eggs have gone up!

 

[Lady~Araucana]

I have also had a reduced egg count, We were getting 12-14 eggs about a month ago and we are only getting a average of 6 a day now. No hidden nests, no egg eaters and no change in diet. Not sure what is going on.

 

[kittyacid]

Same thing here. During the winter, when I expected fewer eggs, I was getting more than I am now. There have been no changes, although I did move their food and now they eat more. Do you think that eating more food could lower egg production?

 

[cybercat]

If they are getting more greens as in free ranging, their protien count is down. If you are not feeding a 20% protien feed you will see a drop in laying. Mine have dropped too even with the feed due to foraging and moulting and broodies. I was getting 18 a day now avg is 10. Mine eat feed in the morning but only a little before ranging.