No eggs for many days

[fullerfamfarm]

Hello We have been having a HUGE depletion in our egg count all summer... its TX so I get the heat, but we have gone from nearly a dozen a day this time last year to the following this past week:
Sep 8th- 4 eggs
Sep 9th- 3
Sep 10th- 0
Sep 11th- 1
Sep 12th- 0
Sep 13th- 0
Today we had 1
They did this off and on all spring too, we attributed it to weather, TX had extreme rain in the spring. We did go ahead and worm as a precaution though. The numbers never really recovered and now they are EXTREMELY low. I am so bummed, but determined to figure it out.

I am wondering if there might be an issue of hen to rooster ratio. We have 18 hens to 3 roosters. Not by design, we were shipped 2 "bonus" roos as a not so exciting surprise. Is it possible that the ladies are over worked? They don't look picked over on their backs.

Any ideas?
thanks so very much!
Katie

 

[junebuggena]

How old are they?

 

[fullerfamfarm]

6 are 18 or so months, the rest are a year

 

[junebuggena]

They are old enough to be affected by the shortening days. It's also time for them to molt. Both are common reasons for fewer eggs, this time of year.

 

[Nef003]

Mines too, they have reduced their eggs for about 2 weeks now. I live in ga. I thought it was because I'm just feeding them cracked corn. They do free roam a whole half acre. Only 8 birds. My rooster is molting , hens aren't.

 

[CleanEggs]

I too experienced this over the summer in FL. Not much molting either. But one day I bought a 3 lb. bag of mealworms and gave a half pound to 10 birds and the next day I gave kitten chow, then worms, etc... By the fourth day I had gone from 1 egg a day to 3-4. Now I am up to 3-6. They just needed a jump start in protein. I have since modified their diet back to something more normal, but every second or third day they get dried fish snacks, mealworms or kitten chow.

 

[junebuggena]

Mines too, they have reduced their eggs for about 2 weeks now. I live in ga. I thought it was because I'm just feeding them cracked corn. They do free roam a whole half acre. Only 8 birds. My rooster is molting , hens aren't.

Your flock needs access to a balanced diet if you want them to lay up to their potential.

 

[CleanEggs]

I had been giving mine layer pellets and free ranging all day. It was not until I jacked up their protein did they start laying again. The whole molting process is so stressful and adding to that the return of laying... One of my birds just fell down and died from the effort before I instituted the protein regimine.
Sometimes you have to change things up.