Why Aren't My Chickens Laying? Here Are Your Answers!

[halo]

Also, hens can get in the bad habit of eating eggs, so you have to rule that out if you are seeing low production.

I have found, with hatching my own birds, that if they hatch from April to August, you wont see as much production right off the bat as if they were hatched in Dec- March. The reason, I think, is because chicks hatched later in the spring are reaching laying age when the days are getting the shortest. Pullets hatched earlier in the year reach laying age when the days are still long, and seem to lay much better. They all seem to catch up the following year.

 

[speckledhen]

Yes, they can eat them or they can lay outside the coop somewhere, but that would mean they are laying, but you're just not finding them. Mine have free ranged all their lives and never have laid outside the coops-they run home to lay then go out again. The only time in five years that one has ever laid an egg outside the coop was when the door blew shut and I didn't realize it. Found five eggs on the straw bales under the coop with Violet sitting on them laying hers, LOL.

 

[Cass]

Quote:
A YEAR!!!

They go in the stew pot at 6 months at my house. Unless they are one of my favorites. Or have really nice coloring. Or are good broodies. Or I paid a lot for them Or they were free. Or are one of my Marans. Or one of my D'uccles. Or one of my silkies. Or one of my Olive Eggers.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Just remember, hens are not vending machines. They are living creatures that are affected by all sorts of external and internal stressors/cues. We are not at 100% capacity every single day and neither are they. /img/smilies/smile.png

This needs to be repeated

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Great link. Thanks.

Yeah, I've seen many threads/querries about low or no production. Glad to say on my part that this back yard experiment is going great.

The article mentioned we'll see drop after first 10 weeks and I'll be looking for that. Keep a daily log on the calender. Of the 4 laying it's been 6 eggs per week or better and that's with a barred rock

 

[dacjohns]

Quote:
Go to the index page and then pick a forum. The stickies should be at the top of the forum. They are "stuck" there.

Welcome to BYC.

 

[HHandbasket]

Hey, guess what? Lola, our new EE who joined us 3 weeks ago, laid her first egg here today!

And it's bluuuue~!!

Yep, I am doing the happy dance!

She was laying at her old home for about a month. I am told she was hatched March 1 of this year. She's been squatting for us for about two weeks, and this morning she made herself a lovely little nest in the bottom left corner of the "Playhouse Coop" (we have multiple coops joined together like a hamster habitrail but for chickens), sat down, started singing her song, and about an hour and a half later, came out, made an announcement, and headed straight for the feeder!! I ran out and plucked a lovely little blue egg from betwixt the mini-bundlets of hay!

Here is her egg on the right, next to Bertha's egg (the other EE) from yesterday. Gotta greenie and a bluie. Wheee!!

Here's hoping the rest of the flock gets the message. You should have seen them strutting around and sticking their curious little heads into the door of the Playhouse Coop when she was singing the egg song. They started making noises like they were trying to imitate her, which was pretty cool. Hopefully soon.

 

[MountainChickenMama]

My EE stopped laying all of a sudden...she is 25 weeks old approximately and laid her first egg at 22 weeks...She was doing almost every day OR every other day and now hasn't laid any for the past 5 days I would say....I am assuming that it is cause the days are shortened....Does that sound right?

 

[speckledhen]

It's completely natural for hens to stop, or almost stop, laying entirely this time of year with shorter days and colder temps. The heat of summer can also slow them down. When they molt, it takes lots of protein to grow feathers so they quit laying for a time. That is where the "hens are not vending machines" comes into play. They truly need breaks or they are more likely to die early from reproductive malfunctions, IMO. Commercial operations push theirs to the limit and discard them at under two years old, usually. If you want them to stick around longer, probably best not to push them beyond their natural rhythms--I realize many disagree with me and some have a different outlook than I do, but they probably haven't seen one after another die from internal laying/egg peritonitis as I have. It's heartbreaking. I have girls who are five years old still laying at a very reduced rate, after an extended molting period, but two eggs per week from a hen may not thrill some folks. I'm just happy those girls are okay and as long as they are laying an egg on occasion, I know their bodies are working correctly. Mine are not a business, however; they're a hobby and most are just pets. I would do things differently if I depended on them for income.

If you just want them to lay like gangbusters for two years then get rid of them, that's where extra lighting comes in. And in places like Alaska, you'd have to add light for much of the year, though, so it depends on several factors, whether or not you add light and for how long. Some think it doesn't make a difference for their health one way or another and maybe they're right--I just don't like to push mine, for obvious reasons.

 

[walfarmchiks]

Great Oregon Extension Services article. Thanks! We acquired our chicks at Easter in 2009 and they produced their first eggs in about June of that year. We didn't know any different, and apparently neither did they, because they produced well into the fall. 10 hens, about 9 eggs per day from the lot! Lots' of double yolks in mega-eggs as well. One prolapsed cloaca, which I persisted in pushing back in, smothered in both antibiotic cream and Prep. H, as per my local vet. He said the birds almost always succumbed, but I didn't give up, and two weeks later it was A-OK and she was a prolific layer right up until one of my rural neighbour's dogs ran up and killed her right in front of me. Sorry day. Shoulda shot that darn free-ranging dog.....

Anyhow, this past fall, as of about Oct. 15th, they all simultaneously stopped laying for all intents and purposes, over about 2 weeks. This accompanied their recovery from both natural molt and their own internal bickering (they were in too small a run area; 8 birds [one died from disease] in about80 sq. ft. Now it's better: about 120 sq ft for 8 birds. The result was a lot of big patches of bare skin. All healed over now!)

As of this past two weeks, despite bitter cold and wind (-8˚ F some nights) they are now coming back on-line. I didn't like the article's mention that they will really slow down at about 18 mo, and then stop at about 3 years, since I'm there @ 18 months now, but my local egg-raising friend says that's just not so. She has chickens well over 4 years old that produce about 3 - 4 eggs per week.

Question: the hen that the dog killed became a slightly tough slow-cooked chicken stew dinner. (BTW, that ended the controversy about whether you could eat a pet hen you'd named. Didn't seem logical to just toss her...) I took the opportunity to do a bit of an internal physiological examination (I am a wildlife biologist after all...) and noted with great interest the oviduct layout inside Piccolo. The starting point is a cluster of already-formed tiny egg yolk sacs, a cluster of, I estimated, about 120 of them ranging in size from <1mm to about 6-8mm.

The connecting duct had 3 yolks in it, ranging in size from about 1cm (10mm) up to about 18 - 20mm (just under one inch). I wondered if they have a set number of egg yolks, as in human females, and when they're gone, that's it. I'll assume there's a few other very tiny little proto-egg yolk sacs developing under the cluster of visible ones, yes? Anyone know the answer to that?

We're back up to about 3-4 eggs per day now. They have access to a thermostatically controlled [32˚ to 40˚ temp range via a Thermocube™ controlled outlet] and well-insulated coop, so they are not stressed too much by this cold weather. They also get some morning and noon-day sun, even despite the cold temps.

They, and I, am now officially looking forward to about April 1, 2011 and a return to more rational temps!