Sudden spring drop off??

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

My girls only started laying this winter. We had a light in the coop making sure there was 12 hours of light and they were producing just fine. I was getting nine eggs on average from ten hens.

Suddenly, I am getting six or seven. NOthing changed except the outside weather whipsawing temperatures. Could that be doing the trick??

 

[dancingbear]

I've been wondering the same thing. In midwinter, I stopped using extra light. I would've had to stop with the light anyway, because we had a huge ice storm and had no power for 6 days. We were getting anywhere from 15-22 eggs a day. Now, it's warmer, the days are longer, nobody's broody at the moment, and we're only getting 8-12 a day.

Beats the heck out of me.

 

[sussexgal]

Yup - same here. Fewer eggs and smaller in size on the ones that do get left in the nest.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

OK Bizzaro!

I have ten hens. Saturday I only got six eggs. I was a little worried and checked bottoms for signs of being egg bound - nothing (except some now very annoyed hens!

)


Yesterday DH got the eggs first thing he collected six.

We had had some mud issues so I had him let everyone out to free range (which I usually don't do until they are done paying the rent.) and we
mucked out the coop and the run. Cleaned it raked it and laid down fresh hay.

While we were doing this the hens went into their nesting boxes and continued to lay. By days end we had collected and even dozen....

DH said they were on strike til I cleaned the coop and gave me more to reward me! How did they do that?? I know the eggs weren't left overs from the day before because I was cleaning the coop as they laid them. I don't think we miscounted by two because I made deliveries Friday and only had a dozen eggs in the fridge.

Can a hen lay more than one egg a day??

 

[AHappychick]

mine have been on slow down for 2 weeks now even with light and like you I checked all for egg bound much to their dismay

But they are all fine, I too cleaned out the whole coop and still just 4-6 a day out of 12 hens lol. I think mine are on semi-strike until their outside coop is done!

They can lay twice in one day but it is not common.

 

[SunAngel]

I am experiencing the same thing. Mine really picked up laying between mid Jan-Feb and I was getting 16 or so a day, mostly from the standard coop.

Now I am getting 10-12 and each day is a different group of eggs and sizes. Almost like some are taking more days off or they have agreed upon who lays on which days.

I would have thought with our bout of 60-70 degree temps, all of them would have started laying better.

 

[Roosteroops]

Same here - I used a light until Feb 15th - now I'm getting 1 egg about every other day out of 9 hens! I'm even in NC where it has been in the 80's. It must be Spring brEGGck for them. Ha ha.

 

[lakeshorenc]

Mine are doing the same. I was getting 7-8 eggs a day, now it's down to 5-6. Those biddy's better straighten up!! My daughter is on spring brEGGk too.

 

[asher]

Yes.

Mine were laying great, about 95%.

Now, I'm getting maybe one chicken egg a day and most days no duck eggs.

I've been threatening to go squeeze the eggs out. DH says I need to threaten something more along the lines of stew.

(They ONLY let up when they know I need to send eggs out. Doesn't that just figure?!)

 

[Kim_NC]

I have a group of 18 mo old Barred Rocks who cut back like this about 10 days ago. At first I was perplexed trying to figure it out. But then after the first 4 or 5 days it became obvious half of them started molting. Fortunately it appears it'll be a very quick molt. We immediately increased their protein to help them build feathers faster.

Quote:
I would turn them back on until about May 10th. We're currently at 11 hr 40 min daylight in NC. We will not reach 14 hrs daily until May 10th.

Here's a link I shared recently where you can look up daylight hours for any day of the year based on your zipcode:
http://www.almanac.com/rise/index.php

Also the ups & downs in temps here are not helping. We had almost a week of weather in the 60s. Then back down in the 40s, a short warm-up, then early last week we had snow and never got above freezing for 3 days. Now....in the 70s/80s. Even our best layers are trying to figure out what to do!