Poor Egg production

[sckrob]

In late August I had to stop free ranging my flock due to predators, lost half my flock over the summer. And since then the egg production has dwindled to maybe one egg a day if we are lucky. I have 1 barred rock, 1 black austerlop, 1 brown leghorn, 1 white leghorn and 3 Rhode Island reds; I do have 3 roosters. Their run is 20'x25', which I feel is big enough. Feed is the same. Can offer any advice.

 

[sonew123]

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first, Im so sorry you lost half your flock its never easy going throught that. Right now Im waiting for the sun to rise to see if my 3 call ducks came home-first time ever they didnt come home to get locked up:-(

Second, You have too many roosters-1 is more than enough for the girls you have.. ratio is 1 roo to 8-10 hens. They could be getting over mated and its stressing them out bigtime.

third, they could be moulting like most do this time of year 1/2 of mine are:-(

fourth, feed them extra protein filled snacks and food-when in moult all their energy goes into producing new feathers not eggs. SO with the extras they could begin laying sooner.

fifth, how old are they? They could be near the ends of their egg production cycles??

good luck

 

[sckrob]

Okay, thanks for the comments,

To answer the first question, I agree that I may have too many roosters, I will have to work on thinning them out. 2 of them are Brown Leghorns and are good looking birds, really don't want to butcher them.

Second question, how long the a molt take, this has been going on since August/September, and I have not noticed a significant loss of feathers other than the pecking that has been normally occurring,

Lastly, most of them are less than two years old to the best of my memory, one is less that a year, that would be my Brown Leghorn, she started laying and then quit, rooster thing I bet from what you have said.

Thanks for the help.

 

[sonew123]

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