My bratty - Feathered children.

[Mother_of_30]

I am still new at raising chickens, I am going into my second year and I am having a blast! I started out with 11 ladies and 1 man of the roost, however he had to go. He was attacking me every time I went outside and had my hair in a ponytail. It got so bad that one day, he had me against the fence trying to tear my legs apart. Therefore, he had to go to a new home.
During the first year, I lost two of my girls, one to a horrible tractor incident and the other to a coyote. I cried for days over their loss. This spring we (my boyfriend and I) decided to get a few more girls. I have found that peeps are like potato chips, you cannot buy just one... buy the time it was over with I ended up with 28 chickens and 2 ducks ( they were lonely and needed a home) . I lost two of the peeps within the first two weeks, so now I have 26 chickens and the 2 ducks (they think they are chickens and the chickens just think they are weird looking chickens).
I have a mix of chickens, I have three bantams, 5 white, two ornamental, three black and whites and the rest are reddish, as for the exact breeds, I do not know. I just know they make me laugh. As soon as I walk outside, they all run up to me and just “chatter” until I bend over and scratch every single one of them. For the record only one has a name and it is Peep peep... she was the smallest one and I had to give her special attention, almost lost her a couple of time but she is a “big” girl now even though she is half the size of the other regular sized birds.
I am a bit worried right now though, even with three fans their coop is still hitting 110 every day, and at night only cools to just over 80. During the day, I let them free range, so they can find shade but so they can eat the bugs.
Only two of the newest are laying, and their shells are so thin. I have doubled the amount of oyster shells I put in their feed, and I have taken the shells of the eggs I use, I grind them up and add that back to their feed as well but those that are laying, they are paper-thin. I change out their water every day and have even tried to add vitamins to their water but so far, it is not working.
If anyone has any ideas on how I can help, my girls become the egg layers I know they are meant to bee I am willing to listen to suggestions… Thank you...

 

[RedDrgn]

I haven't reached the egglaying stages with my chicks yet, so take my thoughts on this with a grain of salt, but stress from the heat/humidity are the cause (or contributing to) the lack of egg laying and thin shells. I know a few people had told me before we got chickens that hens sometimes stop laying if any of their living conditions suggest hardships and shift their bodies more into a "survive at all costs" mode rather than "be comfortable and procreate".

 

[Mother_of_30]

I have thought that maybe it is the heat, bless their little hearts it is only 8:30 am and it is already almost 100 in that coop. I have three fans in there but it isnt really helping them when they go in to lay their eggs.
I am not sure what else I can do for them at this point. I let them out as soon as the sun starts to come up so they can eat and find shade in the yard with some fresh air, but when they go lay there eggs they suffer because of the heat.
My ducks are doing a little better than my chickens because of their pool they wade in.
If anyone has any ideas on how I can help them make it thru this heat please let me know I am open to ideas...