What happened to my egg production?

[aart]

And tonight? Nine eggs.
I’m probably going to have to give them some time to get back into the laying cycle? I’m just guessing here!

Yup.
Guessing your younger(~12 months old?) group of GC's should all be laying 5-6 a week.
The older birds may not be laying but 3-4 a week.

 

[Raising Larry]

They’ve already molted ... they did that in late January & February. Since their molt, they were laying as usual.
For a human to get in, they’d have to get into our fenced in & gated backyard. We live in the country but have neighbors within eyesight. And no one that I can think of would pull that kind of prank.
We have had a lot of rain ... and I do mean a lot! The only place there could possibly be a hidden nest outside would be in the tree line on the back of our property/chicken run. And we’ve not found anything. The back of the barn is open to them - and we’ve checked that area. Looking behind things, moving things away from the walls, etc. Nothing.
My husband asked, since they’re considered free range, have I paid their cell phone bill!! (Remember the Geico commercial?)
I’m really hoping cutting back on the amount of “treat” they get in the evening will do the trick. I figure if that’s the issue, I should start seeing more eggs within the next week.
I will let you know what happens. Stay tuned!

I'd be interested in what happens with yours. Our situations sound similar. We also have a drop in egg production (we only have 3 hens, red sexlinks, 1 year old now.). They are down to 0-1 per day for the last 6 days - normally they give 2-3 per day even in the cold part of the winter. The weather has been weird here - warm to snow and back again. Just before this happened I found one egg below a roost in the pen instead of in the nesting box. That was odd. Since then, none, or just one in the nesting box. (And I was REALLY hoping to have a supply of eggs during this craziness.) No sign of predators or egg-eating here either. Pen is not huge and we watch them when they come out to "free range".

They seem healthy otherwise. Very interested in dust bathing. Not a lot of feathers around.

 

[nep big red]

Yup.
Guessing your younger(~12 months old?) group of GC's should all be laying 5-6 a week.
The older birds may not be laying but 3-4 a week.

Lately I’ve noticed the “community nest” usually has 7 or 8 eggs in it. I‘m thinking that’s the nest the GC’s prefer. Can’t be sure without either putting my husband’s trail camera in the nesting boxes area or spending the day sitting in the coop (and that’s not an option!). Actually, I’m leaning towards the camera idea!

 

[nep big red]

I'd be interested in what happens with yours. Our situations sound similar. We also have a drop in egg production (we only have 3 hens, red sexlinks, 1 year old now.). They are down to 0-1 per day for the last 6 days - normally they give 2-3 per day even in the cold part of the winter. The weather has been weird here - warm to snow and back again. Just before this happened I found one egg below a roost in the pen instead of in the nesting box. That was odd. Since then, none, or just one in the nesting box. (And I was REALLY hoping to have a supply of eggs during this craziness.) No sign of predators or egg-eating here either. Pen is not huge and we watch them when they come out to "free range".

They seem healthy otherwise. Very interested in dust bathing. Not a lot of feathers around.

So tell me - do you spoil your “babies” with a treat every evening the way I do? If so, approximately how much are you giving them?

 

[nep big red]

My husband just mentioned something that has recently changed.
Going to Daylight Savings Time.
I have the lights in the coop on a timer. The lights come on about 6am & stay on until about 7:30 now. During the winter, they come on about 5am. Then, in the evening, the lights come on about 5:30pm & stay on until about 8pm. During the winter, they come on about 4:30. I did this as a recommended idea because during the winter months they don’t get as much natural light. Plus, our coop is dark - no windows. If we have to go in due the day for whatever reason (ie: cleaning, refreshing the bedding, etc), we manually override the timer. The timer is not easily assessable from in the coop - the lights are plugged into an outlet inside the main barn via a heavy extension cord through a hole in the wall. So turning the lights off & on isn’t very handy - no switch in the coop.
Wondering if I need to have the lights on earlier in the morning & later in the evening.
Thoughts?

 

[Finnie]

When daylight savings time started, did you CHANGE any of the settings on your timers? If not, then daylight savings time does not affect chickens. They have the same amount of interior light bulbs as they already had. Now if you went in and adjusted the timers to shorten how long the lights are turned on, then yes, you could affect their laying. But that effect should be offset by the fact that now the days are getting longer, so they are getting more natural sunlight. So any that weren’t laying before should come into lay now. Until they decide to go broody.

 

[GC-Raptor]

Plus, our coop is dark - no windows. If we have to go in due the day for whatever reason (ie: cleaning, refreshing the bedding, etc), we manually override the timer.

I would leave the lights on all day. I use LEDs, very efficient. Use a warm spectrum between 2700 and 3000 Kelvin.
There should be enough light to read a newspaper in all areas of the coop, except the nest boxes.
Lights should not shine inside nest boxes.

Wondering if I need to have the lights on earlier in the morning & later in the evening.
Thoughts?

14 to 15 hours of light is what most recommend to keep up egg production.
I find that if it falls below 13 hours, egg production slows. GC

 

[Raising Larry]

So tell me - do you spoil your “babies” with a treat every evening the way I do? If so, approximately how much are you giving them?

They get about a tablespoon of scratch per chicken plus a few kitchen scraps - maybe 1-2 tablespoons per bird throughout the day. We started restricting treats a few days ago, and "treating" them with their regular feed in the morning (since they expect something on the ground to peck at). So far no change, but we just started this. Do you think treats may be slowing their egg production? We do not light ours at all, so they did slow over the winter, but now the days are a lot longer.

 

[nep big red]

I would leave the lights on all day. I use LEDs, very efficient. Use a warm spectrum between 2700 and 3000 Kelvin.
There should be enough light to read a newspaper in all areas of the coop, except the nest boxes.
Lights should not shine inside nest boxes.

14 to 15 hours of light is what most recommend to keep up egg production.
I find that if it falls below 13 hours, egg production slows. GC

Hmmmm ...
I changed the timer to light up the coop back to what it would’ve been before the time change. Thanks for that little bit of advice!

 

[nep big red]

Another update:
Well, we’ve realized they ARE molting! We didn’t really notice an increase of feathers in the coop - the ones in there were mixing in with the dirt floor, etc. Any that they were losing when outside were being scooped up by birds for their nests!! We figure they must’ve been in the early stages of their molting process when the egg production dropped - hindsight and talking it through with all of you has helped us to better analyze what’s going on with our girls!
I’m going to leave their reduced amount of evening treat as it is - cheaper that way, too!
BTW - even with the lights on longer, there are no lights shining in the nesting box area because of how it was built. So that’s a good thing!
Now we just wait for them to emerge from their molting stage, I guess! The lower egg production has been going on now for about 4 weeks. And with the increased amount of feathers we’re seeing, it appears to be hitting its peak. Hopefully the production will get back up there soon - I have customers anxiously awaiting fresh brown eggs!