My girls are only laying 1 egg

[ellenam]

Hi, I am new to BYC. I have a question:


My girls have only been laying 1 egg for 2 days in a row. I have 6 chickens. They used to lay 4 to 5. One day, they were laying as normal, and then the next day they stopped laying, except for one egg each day. I have no roosters, and I checked both their nesting area and their sleeping area. They are allowed to free-range.



Please help!

 

[jonsccm]

My hens have done the same thing the past weak. There are a few things that can couse this, lighting, it's that time of year that a lot of layers slow down a bit. And it can happen all of a sudden. If it's cold that can make a diferance. But in my experience when it's a drastic change like that it's because something happened to make them feel insecure. Could be pretitors coming around at night or a slew of other things. If that's the case then they should start back up soon.
That's been my experiance.

 

[Kernel Cluck]

I am not sure where you are located. I have 2 words... sunlight and molting. Chickens needs 16 hours of light to lay regularily and most areas are experiencing a decrease in light and most hens molt in the fall.Sometimes the molt is so slight you dont even notice. They dedicate all the energy they would normally put into egg production into making new feathers.