No longer free ranging...egg laying issues now...

[1hotmoma]

We decided to change somethings here for the girls. They no longer are free range. I knew to expect some kinda break in the egg laying. As soon as we get the girls in the new coop they only lay 1/3 of what they did before. I have also noticed that the new girls that should be laying are acting the same. Today I got 3 eggs, yesterday I got 10, the day before I got 7. Nothing has been the same with the laying. They have been in the new coop for 5 or 6 weeks now. Even my duck went from laying an egg a day to one in 5 weeks. The feed has stayed the same. I am not sure whats going on. I have several different ages, so I thought molt was going on with the older girls but even the ones that aren't old enough for that is off in the laying department. Does anyone here have any ideas?

 

[sourland]

Strong possibility is that the shortened daylength is causing the reduction in egg production.

 

[teach1rusl]

Yep...you see many posts about decreased laying now. Some is due to molting, but a lot has to do with much shorter days. Soon you'll be seeing posts about lights on timers to extend the "daylight" hours...