They Always Laid Eggs Year Round Before....

france

Songster
10 Years
Mar 2, 2009
216
0
122
North East
I have about 20 hens. Some 2 years old, some 1 year old and some that were due to start laying last month. Each fall my egg production falls but I still get at least 2-3 eggs per day. Then when it gets really cold we put in a heat lamp in mid December and the egg production jumps up again. But this year no eggs. Not a single egg since September.

Meanwhile my 2 silkies who are also two years old produce 1-2 eggs per day. They are in their own coop.

All the chickens get the same food etc. I am home all day and check often so by now if a hen was eating them I should have seen something.

Any ideas???

I had to buy eggs
barnie.gif
 
Light. Autumn is turning to winter and while the temperatures are irrelevant, the lack of sunlight hours is shutting them down. A hen is photo-reactive, that is her retina signals her brain to produce an egg. Not enough hours of light means a shut down. They often molt and re-grow their feathers during this down time. They'll pick up naturally when the days lengthen again in late February.

Again, it isn't the lack of heat, but the lack of light that is sending the signals.
 
Pullets in their first year will lay all winter. Now that they are older, they need to molt and they don't lay eggs while molting. Production will fall in the Fall as the days get shorter and they prepare to molt.
 
Quote:
The 1 yr old and 2 yr olds are molting. The two yr olds did lay through last fall when they were 1 yr olds.
Which is why I am concerned because my present 1 yr olds are not laying and neither are the ones who should have started last month.
 
Quote:
This is the one thing I had not thought of. I see no evidence of parasites. Will look into this more closely thanks!
 
Fred's Hens :

Light. Autumn is turning to winter and while the temperatures are irrelevant, the lack of sunlight hours is shutting them down. A hen is photo-reactive, that is her retina signals her brain to produce an egg. Not enough hours of light means a shut down. They often molt and re-grow their feathers during this down time. They'll pick up naturally when the days lengthen again in late February.

Again, it isn't the lack of heat, but the lack of light that is sending the signals.

I know it is light, but it does not explain why my 2 yr old silkies are still laying and yet a coop of 1 & 2 yr olds are producing nothing for 2 1/2 months and the new hens that were due to start last month have produced nothing.​
 

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