Only 1 egg a day from 6 hens !

[popsicle]

I do have a light in the coop which comes on at 4:00pm and I shut it off at 7:00pm. I have the light on mainly for me so I can see when I go out there to shut up the pen and check on them. I think the quality of their diet plays a big role in production no matter how much light they have.

Feeding a balanced layer ration should be enough for most backyard flocks to maintain egg production (assuming the diet isn't off balance from too many scraps and scratch)

Your birds are probably still laying because you supplement light, it doesn't matter why the light is on but it still has an effect. If I turned on the light in our coop from 4pm to 7pm, my birds would have 2 more hours of light a day. That would put us back to the light we were receiving when my eight hens were giving me 6 or 7 eggs a day (I usually only keep a couple hens of "prolific laying" breeds around at a time so I only expect 3-4 eggs/week from most of my birds).

 

[Braedi Acres]

This is during the summer months that out of 17 hens I only get 6 or 7 daily, Suggestions?