I am only getting one egg a day out of nine chickens. I heard them doing their eggsongs in the woods so I assumed many of them were laying there. The past two days I have locked half of the flock in the coop instead of letting them free range. I allowed two of my molting hens out and one little girl who I don't think will ever lay an egg, she never even developed wattles. I recently allowed her best buddy out with her too... here's my reasoning: I noticed that several of my girls appear to have flakes of skin coming off. I wanted to check their vents for mites and things so I checked this buddy of my little hen out and her vent is so tiny it looks like it did before she ever laid eggs. So that's weird and I think it's safe to say she isn't laying. I let her out. Now I just went out and checked on two my SLWs who recently grew back all their pretty feathers and their vents are teeny tiny too. Only two of the chickens look like they actually have the ability to lay eggs. Several of them seem to be struggling to poop out of their tiny vents. They just stand there forever, squatting and attempting to poop. I also noticed several more of them seem to have dandruff, it's flakes not bugs. What the heck is going on??
Could be they are still molting their under feathers? I've heard that chickens stop laying during molt as well as in the winter when the days start to get shorter. Big flakes are typically bits of the feather sheath coming off when new feathers come in. Can you take pics?I'm No expert---I'm sure someone more seasoned can step in here. When I free range my chickens they do lay eggs everywhere, I found one egg and chicken in a disused shed after all of the other chicks went in for the night. I always do a headcount, but I have a pretty small flock. Scared the crap out of me though, I thought something had gotten her.
