Nesting boxes

[tec718]

I have 6 Leghorn chickens, beautiful birds, but I noticed some were more, should I say aggressive/Friendly as in they come right up to you, but just don't touch...lol while others seem to stay at a distance. They are about 7-8 months old and only producing about 6 eggs per day, between all six. I feed them nothing but organic foods and add dried mealworms to their diet at every feeding. I am wondering if the more aggressive ones are hindering the others from laying eggs, I have 2 coops with nesting boxes in each. most times they choose one coop to lay all 6, once in a blue moon they will use both, but still only 6 eggs total. I have decided to add and 6 section nesting area, each 16 x 16. In hopes, this will get the others to lay eggs. I am hoping more nesting boxes will reduce the domination of the more dominate birds, so the others will produce eggs. I am also increasing the amount of water available. I currently have a 2 gallon water feeder, but really get nasty after a day and seems to loose water quickly. I had a water troth, but that got nasty really quick. I also heard that I should dry out and crush the egg shells and spread them around the pen to increase calcium intake, is this true??? Any advice would be great.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

You have 6 chickens and are getting 6 eggs a day? That's 100% production. It doesn't get any better than that! What am I missing?

 

[Willowspirit]

I don’t have answers to everything you wrote as I’m a newbie myself, but you can’t really expect more than one egg per day per chicken. It takes a hen about 26 hours to form a single egg. So they are doing a good job for you if I’m reading your post correctly. I’m sure someone else will come along and help you with your other questions.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

What exactly is the organic feed you are providing? Is it layer, grower, or all-flock? Is it always available? Are they also getting grit and oyster shell in separate containers? Water in an open trough will certainly get nasty because they will perch on the edges and poop in it. They will also perch on top of a 2-gal waterer unless it is suspended from the ceiling, and poop in it. But they can't do better than an egg a day. What were you expecting?

 

[aart]

You have 6 chickens and are getting 6 eggs a day? That's 100% production. It doesn't get any better than that! What am I missing?

Ditto Dat!!!^^^

 

[ChickNanny13]

2x all the above ... A chicken will lay an egg a day, so your leghorns are maxed out. If you're expecting more eggs per day, you'll need to get more hens. It's usually figured 4 hens to a nest and they do have favorites. Adding more nest will not increase egg production, adding more leghorn will.

 

[Mybackyardpeepers]

Ummm your chickens are doing great! I have a pullet that has stopped laying for 3 days now, but I'm not screaming at her to lay one. They are not made to lay daily especially recently new chickens to laying.

 

[Willowspirit]

You might be interested in this video of egg development.

 

[Kayla's Lunch]

I don't have leghorns, but most of mine don't lay 6 eggs in 6 days each. Right now, I have 5 out of 11 molting. I've been getting 5, sometimes only 4 eggs a day.

 

[Willowspirit]

I have eight pullets. One of them is Delores...a runt, so I don’t count her as a regular layer. So seven pullets give us about five eggs a day. We have Orpingtons and Wyandottes and we want more layers but I’m happy with what we’re getting now. It sure demonstrates the difference between layer breeds and dual purpose breeds.