Where'd all my eggs go?

[Deeda]

We have a flock of 30 hens (Rockers, RIR's, Orpingtons and Leghorns) just over 1 year old. They grew up with 3 roos, but they were mean so 2 of them fulfilled their destiny in the soup bowl. Egg production stayed up at 22-24 per day, but recently we've only been getting 12 or less. We've been having some hot weather so we've started hosing down the house to offer some relief and hoping it would help production... sadly it hasn't. I don't see any signs of molting, only the "popular girls" are missing feathers. Also, they get plenty of light during the day. They're fed laying pellets, corn scratch and veggie scraps on a daily basis.

Can't figure it out... any help would be friggin' awesome!!

 

[boyswillbeboys]

I'm low on eggs too, they have been laying outside the coop/run sneaking off into the woods, I was just coming to ask how long I needed to leave mine locked in the coop to retrain them to lay in the nest boxes, it's only been a few days.

 

[aart]

How hot is it?
Do they free range?
Did the laying decrease slowly or all of a sudden?
Any chance you have an egg eater...either your flock or a predator?

 

[Deeda]

I'm in Utah and it has been getting up to 85-90 degrees. They do free range and the shortage happened suddenly.

I have since put a mister in their run, stopped feeding them scratch and added oyster to their diet. We saw a HUGE improvement yesterday. But sadly we're back to our measly 10 eggs today.

 

[Deeda]

Also, no evidence of an egg eater or predator. We've walked the yard thinking they're laying while the range, but that has been fruitless too.
We've only employed the changes mentioned above a few days ago. Am I just being impatient?

 

[aart]

You might want to keep them confined the coop and run for a few days, I've read that every once in a while free rangers need to be 'retrained' to lay in the coop. They can be very good at hiding nests out in range area.

 

[sbhkma]

You might want to keep them confined the coop and run for a few days, I've read that every once in a while free rangers need to be 'retrained' to lay in the coop. They can be very good at hiding nests out in range area.

Yup. That's certainly been my experience. My gals free range daily and every 3 or 4 months I need to confine them for 4 or 5 days to remind them to lay in the nest boxes, not "let's have mom play Easter Egg Hunt!". You'd be amazed at the places they can find to lay. Mine lay dark brown and tan eggs, which blend in perfectly with the leaves in the bushes *sigh*. So when they start doing that I lock em up in the coop & run for a few days - I find 2 or 3 isn't long enough. 4 or 5 seems to work to "reset" their chicken-brain. Well... all except for Sophie who seems completely convinced the nest box is NOT for laying her eggs. But she has her favorite nest area and I keep 2 ceramic eggs in there to remind her. At least that way I know where to look!

 

[Deeda]

Thank you aart and sbhkma! I will give it a go and see what happens! Hope this helps boyswillbeboys!

 

[boyswillbeboys]

I've just been keeping them in the coop a little later , and they are back in the nest boxes, I'm thinking a girl considering going broody started it, but the eggs clearly weren't safe after the dog chased a hen off the nest, and the eggs disappeared ( my dog helped me find the nest and I collected the eggs) but his smell was all over it.

 

[Deeda]

I have a few broody girls and I didn't even think that them hogging the nest boxes could be the problem... Rather than trying to cure the broody girls, I think I'll just add more boxes... Seems to be the logical thing to do.