- Sep 20, 2011
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Okay, I realize my hens may just have stopped laying--but. I have 3 hens that live in a chicken ark (like this: http://catawbacoops.com/) but also free range my apprx 1/3 acre fenced yard much of the day. I usually get 1-3 eggs a day with an occasional (once every two weeks?) skipped day. This week, I think I have gotten 1 egg, maybe 2. Numerous days of NO eggs.
We have had worse times than this in winter when 2/3 were were molting, but nobody is in molt right now. The chickens look fine although one is limping slightly--she does this on and off and has no other apparent injury so we are figuring it is sort of just a thing of hers (she is 3). They act just fine. Seem totally normal. Eating fine. I have stood and watched them eat. Poops look normal.
I kept them confined for a couple of days, thinking they might be sneaking off to lay elsewhere. Nothing. I cleaned the coop very well today, looking for clues. Here is my one clue: sunflower seed hulls, UPSTAIRS (look at the coop--it has an upstairs, which is where the nestboxes are). So we clearly have a rodent getting in. Not a surprise; squirrels can certainly get in, as can wood rats, which we know we have and occasionally see. But...how would a wood rat get an egg down a ramp, or EAT an egg, without leaving a trace??? Could it?
Other thought was a snake, but snakes don't eat sunflower seeds! Maybe a rat is getting up there and freaking them out enough so that they don't want to lay?
We have had worse times than this in winter when 2/3 were were molting, but nobody is in molt right now. The chickens look fine although one is limping slightly--she does this on and off and has no other apparent injury so we are figuring it is sort of just a thing of hers (she is 3). They act just fine. Seem totally normal. Eating fine. I have stood and watched them eat. Poops look normal.
I kept them confined for a couple of days, thinking they might be sneaking off to lay elsewhere. Nothing. I cleaned the coop very well today, looking for clues. Here is my one clue: sunflower seed hulls, UPSTAIRS (look at the coop--it has an upstairs, which is where the nestboxes are). So we clearly have a rodent getting in. Not a surprise; squirrels can certainly get in, as can wood rats, which we know we have and occasionally see. But...how would a wood rat get an egg down a ramp, or EAT an egg, without leaving a trace??? Could it?
Other thought was a snake, but snakes don't eat sunflower seeds! Maybe a rat is getting up there and freaking them out enough so that they don't want to lay?
