I have a variety of chickens that were raised in a coop and then they were free range for quite some time. I recently put them back in their coop due to some predator problems. They usually lay everyday in the same place(most of the time) but when I put them in the coop, there laying started decreasing. I normally got 5-6 eggs a day and then I was only getting 2-3. Not sure if this was due to stress of being confined. They are back to being free range and laying has picked up again. Thanks
Mine situation is reversed, I confined my girls about 2 months ago and egg production has sky rocketed. It's cold and snowy here but I still got 17 eggs today. Chickens are unpredictable just as we are. Good luck.
A few years ago I also confined my free range flock to the coop and run for a spell while we dealt with a predator. Same thing happened, egg laying decreased. Chickens do not like change and losing privileges like being able to free range.
Okay. I was thinking that. The reason that we put them up was a bear was getting in our dog feed until we put it inside the house. Then he proceeded to eat my favorite buff Brahma hen and went after the rooster until my mom came out and shot in the air a few times and he ran off leaving my rooster missing some feathers and pretty shaken up. The bear (which I forgot to mention is huge and not afraid of us) came back a few days ago and dragged a 50 pound bag of dog food away. So the chickens are put up again. I would rather lose eggs then chickens.
I hear that's great also. I've only had it at my sister's, she made ham and beans except it was bear ham---one of the best meals! And there's a ton of meat on one of those guys.