No more eggs!

[BlueMoon]

I'm so sad! We have about 100 hens and are getting maybe 6 eggs a day.

They have food and water. We've taken out about twenty roosters, recently dewormed them, added lights and still no eggs.

They seem healthy, albeit some are four years old now.

Any idea why they've haven't produced much for nearly three months now?

 

[justbugged]

There are a variety of reasons for the hens to have stopped laying. It maybe that the breed of hens you have are past their best laying, or the light insufficient for the hens to lay, or even that the hens are molting. I guess that the first thing would what breed of hens do you have? De-worming 20 roosters will not make any difference to how many eggs you able to get from the hens. Do you have 80 hens and 20 roos, or 100 hens, and 20 roos? Why do you have so many roos?

 

[BlueMoon]

We have about 100 hens, mixed breeds, mixed ages, some are moulting. We removed about 20 roosters and still have 20 roosters. We dewormed the flock last month, and have supplemented light exposure. Still, only getting half dozen eggs a day is alarming. Any other ideas why there are so few eggs? Thank you

 

[noblehillfarm]

My hens had the same problem last year I started adding Caynene Pepper to their food and they picked up to normal laying within 3 days.It might just have been a coincedence but woth trying

 

[BlueMoon]

I thought Cayenne was a dewormer. I'll try that tip but am still hoping for other suggestions or thoughts about maybe why. Thank you!

 

[boykin2010]

i have 9 hens and i am getting 0 to 2 eggs a day

 

[oesdog]

I have 11 birds - three baby roos - NO eggs for a good 4/5 weeks and 4 months from at least two. 3 baby pullets not yet ready to lay so now I am getting 2/3 eggs a week??? So I guess the PR has finally started to lay after her molt.
I think there is a big egg issue at the moment as no one seems to be getting many eggs at all.

Oesdog

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Cayenne is not a dewormer and it won't cure a chicken of a worm infestation, it might help as a preventative, along with some other natural stuff like pumpkin seeds, pinapple leaves and papya. Not much scientific proof to back that up. Though obviously the big pharma corporations would not wan't anyone to know if it did work.

Cayenne is a bit of a stimulant so who knows might kick start them a bit. I would be very surprised to see results in just a couple days though unless it was already going to happen as the eggs take the better part of 21 days to develop in the chicken.

 

[BlueMoon]

I'll try the cayenne, but am still trying to figure out some of the possible reasons why appr. 96 hens out of 102 hens would stop laying when only a few are moulting, the light has been supplemented, they have food and water, they have been dewormed recently and roosters have been removed. Short of giving them massages, I can't think of many other ways of reducing the stress level at the coop and am thinking maybe there is another reason they're not laying.

 

[Kittymomma]

Well, a couple of things come to mind.

1. If I'm reading right you still have about one roo to every 5 hens. Roos normal don't affect egg laying, but when the hens are stressed from over mating it will slow them down.

2. You said that some of your hens are four years old. While there are many accounts of older hens that still lay well that is not really very common. A younger bird may slow down a bit in winter and take a few weeks off for molt, but an older bird is likely to take most of the winter off. What is the breakdown of your hens ages?

3. You said that some of your hens are molting. About how many do you think are getting ready to molt, actively molting, just coming out of molt? That can have a dramatic affect on egg production.

4. Do you think it's possible that you have some egg eaters.

5. You said that you recently got rid of about 20 roos. While I think that is a good thing (actually I think removing 10 more or so would be even better) it's still change and chickens often don't deal well with change. The removal of the roos and the resulting shuffling for new positions in the pecking order could also be a factor.