only 1 egg???

[Dixiedoodle]

I have been getting 6 or 7 eggs every day from my seven brown egg layers... Well, today I only got one---ONE measly egg! Yes, it winter time, daylight is short but such abrupt shortage??? Nothing has changed in two weeks.. They are still getting the same food, treats, water, care that they have been getting.... I even spent the last hour of daylight cleaning everything in their run, coop and filling it with three huge bags of big fluffy shavings... refilling their suet feeders with fresh greens and their reg feeder with Laynea!!!! I was outside and close by all day--nothing ate it.. No one even showed interest in the nest boxes.... So, is this how it's gonna be all winter...These girls are 40 weeks old, haven't been laying for long---10-13 weeks at the very most The breeds are RIR, BO and BR....And how about my Ameraucanas(40 weeks old) and EE (36 weeks old) --can I just stop looking for colored eggs until spring????

Any suggestions/ Ideas?? I really don't want to use a light source....

 

[Mrs. K]

I really think that you will probably have a full nest tomorrow, sometimes stiring things up in the coop seems to throw them off whack, but if they have been laying good, they will have eggs to give you tomorrow, I am almost sure. Usually they slow up, not just quit altogether in one day.

Mine were hatched at the beginning of June and really doing pretty good, and our daylight hours are really shrinking, pretty darn shadowy at 4;30, full dark by 5:00, and today got 6/9. So tomorrow, I will probably only get 3-5, as a chicken only lays about every 26 hours, sometimes they skip a day, but I think the real deal was you cleaning the house. But by tomorrow they will be over it.

Mr

 

[Mahonri]

If they don't lay tomorrow.. they may be taking a break.

 

[Dixiedoodle]

You were right! I got seven eggs from my seven brown egg layers today... It was so strange to only find one egg in the coop at 4:30pm and clean the coop and run and not one more egg.. They usually lay when I am in there cleaning..It hasn't bothered them before...