Suddenly our girls aren't laying as much!

[Shari Barr]

Hi! We're anxious because our 9 month old hens' egg production has dropped drastically. We live in Minnesota and were gleeful that we continued to get 2-4 eggs per day (we have 4 hens) throughout the winter. Suddenly in the last couple of weeks, production has dropped to as low as one egg a day (sometimes two, sometimes three). The girls are all still acting like their perky, enthusiastic selves. Ideas? Thank you!!

 

[canada-goose]

It's probably just winter affecting them. Just because it didn't before doesn't mean it wouldn't happen at all.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Hi! We're anxious because our 9 month old hens' egg production has dropped drastically. We live in Minnesota and were gleeful that we continued to get 2-4 eggs per day (we have 4 hens) throughout the winter. Suddenly in the last couple of weeks, production has dropped to as low as one egg a day (sometimes two, sometimes three). The girls are all still acting like their perky, enthusiastic selves. Ideas? Thank you!!

Quote:

We need to know the breed of hen or pullet that you have, their ages, how much uninterrupted Sunlight they get per-day a detailed list of their layer ration (look on the tag that is sewed on each bag of feed) and other information. Has a predator recently made a serious attempt on the life of your birds? Finally a good close up color photo of each hens' head, face, and comb. Finally how or under what type of
housing do you keep your birds?

Oh yes, I almost forgot......

 

[Archangel7376]

I have 6 ,2 year old RI reds that did the same thing this winter. As warmer weather,and longer days came around my egg count went back up till one or more decided they like the taste of their own eggs

! I guess I need to check them more often.

 

[Shari Barr]

Hi, thanks for your detailed questions... I hope these will help ferret out some answers. Thanks for taking the time! The four girls are all different breeds: a Golden Laced Wyandotte, a Barred Plymouth Rock, a Buckeye, and a Welsummer. They have free access from their coop into their big run with all the sunlight that is available each day. We let them out into the yard every day at least once and often twice... for anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. They were all born on June 9 last year, so they are about 9 months old. We have recently changed the scratch we give them in the evening... and also lowered the amount of mealworms that we were giving them in the heavy duty winter months when it was -15 below 0 for 3 weeks in a row. We figured they didn't need as much of a protein boost now that it's into the 30's-50's during the day here.

I've "listed" their feed ingredients above. Will send pics of the girls soon. Thanks!

 

[Shari Barr]

Top to bottom: Barbara, Frannie, Isa (bella), and Lucille. (Not that you need to know names!). Again, thanks for your time!

 

[Shari Barr]

Thank you, we are hoping this is just a delayed winter effect!!

 

[Jerrbear]

Holy moly, that's a lot of information. I'm having a similar problem with 11 hens. They are all about nine or ten months old. We currently get two jumbo brown eggs, which I am certain are being laid by our two sex-linked golden hens. The other two eggs are white, which could be coming from our three white leghorns or our two Anconas. All three of our precious little Speckled Sussex hens have stopped laying. The roomy hen house has a large 6'X4' window, and they free range all over our five acres in North Idaho. The hen house is also well-insulated, and we supplement them with two heat lamps if the temperatures drop below the 30s. We feed them organic 16% pellets from North 40, but the majority of their diet comes from what they scrounge up around the property, because it takes weeks for them to empty the feeder. I tried shutting them up in the hen house/chicken yard to see if they were secretly laying their eggs somewhere around the property, but we still only got four eggs a day. From what I see here on the forum, I sense that winter interruptions in egg laying are normal. Is that true? Is there anything we can do to get them back to work?

One more thing, while I have your attention. Since most of the flock isn't laying it seems like the two sex-linked goldens are getting most of Jake's attention, and their back feathers look like they have taken quite a beating. You can see a white patch on the back of one of them in my profile picture. That's Jake in the foreground. Is there anything that can be done about that?