ok folks educate me before I go crazy

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twostrokes48

twostrokes48

Hatching
7 Years
Oct 31, 2012
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Just joined the forum, looking for some help. I thought I knew enough to do this....evidently there are some empty spaces in my brain about chickens and ducks.

I have 5 young female ducks and one male....the females were all laying....I also have 8 chicken hens one rooster of mixed breeds that I raised from chicks. All are "brown egg" layers. The hens started laying in early sept. I was getting an average of 6 eggs a day out of the eight hens. Sometimes would get eggs from all 8 in one day.

About 3 weeks ago all the ducks except 1 stopped laying. The one that is still laying is a different breed from the others. About a week ago my hens have stopped laying. I get one or two eggs a day and that is all.

I don't know why I give them oyster shell, laying mash and scratch twice a day. I have them in a nice large chicken tractor (6 x 12) with 4 nest boxes inside and roosting area inside covered area.

So, what is happening???? I want my eggs back!!!!!

And, for those interested, I'm located on the outskirts of San Antonio,Tx near a little town called Elmendorf.
 
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Some ducks lay seasonally. What breed are they? I think climate can affect chicken laying, not sure, or they are hiding their eggs. I recently discovered where my missing eggs are being laid.Stupid chickens
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. You might listen for an egg song being sung in some random out of the way place and check it out. Who knows, you might find your eggs!

Oh, and hi!
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The duck that is still laying is a Pekin.....the ones that stopped all the same day are Rouens.....The chickens can't hide eggs, no place to hide them that I can't see. their roaming area is only 6x7. Plus they were all laying in the nest boxes until the day they decided to quit......got only one egg again today.....sheeesh!!!
tks for the reply..
 
Well, I guess that could be it.....but we still have a good 11-12 hours of daylight....from 7:30a until about 7:15pm. Just seems a little quick for them to all shut down at the same time. Now they are very young....just short of 8 months old and only started laying for their first time the first couple weeks of Sept. so don't know. I guess I could put some lights out.....Would require a very very long extention cord as this is a chicken tractor and it's closest point to electricity is about 100 feet, but it gets moved about 15 feet once a week, further away each time. Have another 200 feet before I turn it around and start another track coming back.
tks for the reply
 
The link doesn't work....but will try to search for the threads....I'm sure there are threads that discuss this, just found the site so havn't searched anything yet. Didn't have the time right now for the required reading. But will eventually get to it.
tks for the reply
 
Ours shut down production pretty hard about a month ago and we still had over twelve hours of sunlight a day. The sun is coming up about 7:30 here now and we turn on a light in their house around 6:00 pm and leave it on until 10:00. Production is back up to normal. Other than an extension chord, they make small solar panels to use in barns for lighting that don't cost that much. Our coop is in half of our garage so we don't need one or I'd recommend a link. I've seen them advertised in several chicken mags though. You can probably find them online too.

Since I don't know where you are, weather can play a big part too. Any time we have a very windy day, our chickens don't lay well. Or if it rains too much. Or if the neighbor mows the alleyway. They can be kind of fickle.
 
Greetings from Kansas, twostrokes48, and
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! Grea to have you here! Sounds like maybe the molt could be shutting them down - the chickens at least - I kow zip about ducks. I know my my hens have really slacked off the last couple of weeks and they are miolting pretty heavy. Hope it's something as simple as that. Good luck to you!!
 

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