i feel silly asking this but we have 21 girls and 8 eggs daily. Many of our girls have retired. I want more eggs. How do we tell which hens are laying and which ones are not?
Hi, welcome to the forum. Glad you joined. Never be afraid to ask a question. The silly question is the one that is not asked, You would not want the flock to be hurt because you were afraid to ask a question.
There are many reasons you may think your hens have retired when they really haven't. If you can tell us a little about your situation we may be able to help. Things like your general location, how old the chickens are, and the laying history. How many eggs were you getting, was the change sudden or gradual, and when did this occur?
Location comes up a lot on many different questions. If you modify your profile so your general location shows up that info is always available. We don't need to know your street address, credit card number, or mother's maiden name, but a general location can really help.
The most common cause of hens not laying is the molt. The most common cause of the molt is the days getting shorter in the fall so if you are south of the equator this is a likely cause. But they can molt at other times for other reasons. Are you seeing a lot of feathers flying around?
One common cause is that the hens are hiding a nest instead of laying in a nest. There was a recent thread where somebody found a huge pile of eggs in a hidden nest when she thought her hens had stopped laying. We don't know how you manage them, can they be hiding a nest.
Sometimes critters get your eggs. Most critters leave some type of debris, either egg shells or wet spots. I don't know where you are so I don't know what the normal suspects are for you but here in the US a snake, canines, or humans are the typical critters that take eggs without leaving a trace. Snakes are inconsistent. The eat some eggs, how many depends on their size, and disappear for two or three days to digest them before they come back for more. If it is a steady number of eggs it is not a snake. Foxes and coyotes would probably be more interested in a chicken dinner than eggs but a dog will often eat eggs without bothering the chickens. Does a dog have access. Human doesn't always mean thief, some practical jokers think this could be funny.
When hens get old they lay less. The typical cycle is that they lay a lot during their first laying cycle. Some pullets may even lay through their first winter instead of molting. After their first adult molt they usually come back laying like gangbusters for the next laying cycle. But after their second adult molt they usually cut back some on laying. For some hens it's not that much, for some it can be pretty dramatic. It's typically not that they just stop laying, they just don't lay as much. After each molt after that they cut back more so soon they don't lay as much.
It's possible something is going on other than they are retired. It would be a shame for you to permanently remove hens that will soon be laying really well again or maybe still are. So what is going on with your flock?
This link talks about some ways to determine which might be laying and which are not, plus talks about how to find your better layers. I've used the tight dry vent versus the soft moist vent a lot but that doesn't tell if she is laying every day or once a week.
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/4aj/4aj07po/4aj07po.PDF
Good luck!
