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

[Cass]

Quote:
No, no one has suggested that. But I do it and they still don't lay eggs here in Upstate NY. Wish it worked as well for me as it is for you.


Everyone else? Try it, it can't hurt and it just may help. But not boiling water....you don't want hard boiled eggs, do you??

 

[speckledhen]

LOL@ Cass!


Usually, pullets lay fine through the winter their first year. It's as they get older that they take longer and longer cold weather breaks, seems to me. I do have two pullets who started, laid a couple of weeks, then quit, but they are really unusual. The rest the same age are laying regularly.

 

[Cass]

Quote:
Well my "pullets" aren't laying. I don't have one single chicken that is a full year old yet and still no eggs. Ok, I'm lieing. I get one egg on Monday, 2 eggs on Tuesday, NO eggs on Wednesday, one on Thursday, 2 on Friday, none on Saturday and well, Sunday? I sleep late, so I'm not sure how many eggs I get cuz my SO collects the eggs and doesn't record what he finds. Personally I think he EATS them before I get up and claims that there were no eggs.

Have I meantioned I have 10 chickens of laying age, one chick and 2 that might or might not be old enough to lay. And 3 roos I love to pieces....and they aren't laying eggs either.

Come spring you can all join me on my own thread entitled "what the BLEEP do I do with all these extra eggs?" HURRY UP SPRING

And BTW, Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

 

[flocksalot]

Quote:
Follow up to this question.

I did the test egg in the nesting box and it lasted several days so I assume there's not any serious egg eating going on.

I've got my timer set so the light comes on pretty early - is it possible that I'm giving them too much light? Should I look for little bags under their eyes?

Another question - how long after putting a light in the coop should the hens laying increase?


Thanks,

-DB

Too much light if it's really bright can be stressful and lead to things like canibalism. If the light is kept low enough it wont bother them when they are perching and inactive. I keep my lights on 24/7 365 days a year, but I keep them low and just over the feed and water. They are in the dark on their perches, in the nest boxes and on most areas of the floor. This is how my grandfather did it, my parents did it and how I've did it for more years than I care to remember. Of course my grandfather used a well secured lantern before electricity. The horse barn burnt down over and over, but never the chicken coops. Go figure. Anyway it's how you manage the light that will matter. As for expecting eggs the very next day.

That's just not gonna happen. The egg takes time to happen. First the light needs to stimulate the hens egg folicles to begin to ripen the yolks. Once the yolk is ripe it will take approximately 25 hours to go through the whole process (think egg factory very small scale) before it's laid. How long it takes for the egg yokld to ripen and begin making the trip to your frying pan will depend on many things. How long they were without light. How cold it is. How old is the hen/pullet. How crossed are their little legs.

And the breed of the bird and the strain of that breed. Some particular breeds and strains of breeds can breeze right through winter without a beat. Some sit outside your window shivering and miserable wishing you would give them something warm to wear and couldn't produce and egg if their life depended on it. Kind of like how some humans love the snow and some don't leave their house til the first robin appears. I myself would prefer to sit by the fire drink warm things and snuggle into my warm blankie while my husband and young son go off skiing and other frolicking amongst the wet cold horrid stuff out there. I'll just sit here and read a book.

When or even if you start augmenting light is up to you, but usually you would start when the days get less than 15 hours. If you start at a later date then you should begin by adding time over a period. I remember a neighbor lady getting some pullets in the winter and she added light and increased the time by 15 minutes every 2 or 3 days. She said it was more natural and would bring the girls into lay at a more modest pace allowing them to develop in a healthier way. They would then start to lay larger eggs faster and would lay more eggs over a longer period of time. I grew up with old timers and tend to follow what I learnt. I've also read you can do it with 30 minute increments. The time is up to you on how you do it and what you think is best for you and yours.

A word of caution. If you do opt to leave a light on all the time like me you should make sure that they can get into complete dark at least 6 to 8 hours a day for their immune system to basically reboot. Mine actually get more light from the moon and stars or the horse yard while on their perches than they do from the light over their feed. Keeping the light on for me keeps the rodents and predators at bay. I've only ever lost one pullet to a predator and that was a cat. My coops aren't tiny or for small amounts of birds, so I can build walls and drop ceilings that allow me to accomplish what I need. During the winter the heat from the light will rise and give off some heat for the hens on their perches. Over the summer I use flourescent and lots more ventilation.

One other thing. I know some of you are chomping at the bit to get your first eggs sitting out their with your frying pan just a waiting for them to make you breakfast ( I'm joking), but I will tell you from experience. Hope that your girls take enough time to grow and mature before they begin to lay. If they start early the eggs are generally smaller and during their life they lay less. The vet also tells me they are more likely to prolapse. I've never had that happen myself and I hope I never do, but I do know that their laying life and often their life period is much shorter than the girls that take a bit longer. So give them a few more months and let them fully develop. I have one very sweet little Amerucana that started laying at 18 weeks. She's tiny compared to her sisters, her eggs are tiny, and sadly I don't think she will live near as long as the ones that have grown into large well built hens. Abigail is a dear though.

 

[seminolewind]

Hey, 2 months, 0-1 egg a day from 20 hens. BUT today they started doing "the squat". Won't be long now!

 

[cluck-darth-peep]

My girls lay an egg a day. My grandmother told me to leave a low light on over the food and water, a timer light on at 1:00am, off at 8:00am. They get the 16 hours of light my grandmother told me to give them. They receive a small morning snack: bread and lettuce, and cracked corn an hour before dark. Gram said too many or too much treats, they stop laying or I will not get an egg a day. I listen to Gram, and I get an egg a day.
Hope this helps.

 

[Cass]

Quote:
Follow up to this question.

I did the test egg in the nesting box and it lasted several days so I assume there's not any serious egg eating going on.

I've got my timer set so the light comes on pretty early - is it possible that I'm giving them too much light? Should I look for little bags under their eyes?

Another question - how long after putting a light in the coop should the hens laying increase?


Thanks,

-DB

Too much light if it's really bright can be stressful and lead to things like canibalism. If the light is kept low enough it wont bother them when they are perching and inactive. I keep my lights on 24/7 365 days a year, but I keep them low and just over the feed and water. They are in the dark on their perches, in the nest boxes and on most areas of the floor. This is how my grandfather did it, my parents did it and how I've did it for more years than I care to remember. Of course my grandfather used a well secured lantern before electricity. The horse barn burnt down over and over, but never the chicken coops. Go figure. Anyway it's how you manage the light that will matter. As for expecting eggs the very next day.

That's just not gonna happen. The egg takes time to happen. First the light needs to stimulate the hens egg folicles to begin to ripen the yolks. Once the yolk is ripe it will take approximately 25 hours to go through the whole process (think egg factory very small scale) before it's laid. How long it takes for the egg yokld to ripen and begin making the trip to your frying pan will depend on many things. How long they were without light. How cold it is. How old is the hen/pullet. How crossed are their little legs.

And the breed of the bird and the strain of that breed. Some particular breeds and strains of breeds can breeze right through winter without a beat. Some sit outside your window shivering and miserable wishing you would give them something warm to wear and couldn't produce and egg if their life depended on it. Kind of like how some humans love the snow and some don't leave their house til the first robin appears. I myself would prefer to sit by the fire drink warm things and snuggle into my warm blankie while my husband and young son go off skiing and other frolicking amongst the wet cold horrid stuff out there. I'll just sit here and read a book.

When or even if you start augmenting light is up to you, but usually you would start when the days get less than 15 hours. If you start at a later date then you should begin by adding time over a period. I remember a neighbor lady getting some pullets in the winter and she added light and increased the time by 15 minutes every 2 or 3 days. She said it was more natural and would bring the girls into lay at a more modest pace allowing them to develop in a healthier way. They would then start to lay larger eggs faster and would lay more eggs over a longer period of time. I grew up with old timers and tend to follow what I learnt. I've also read you can do it with 30 minute increments. The time is up to you on how you do it and what you think is best for you and yours.

A word of caution. If you do opt to leave a light on all the time like me you should make sure that they can get into complete dark at least 6 to 8 hours a day for their immune system to basically reboot. Mine actually get more light from the moon and stars or the horse yard while on their perches than they do from the light over their feed. Keeping the light on for me keeps the rodents and predators at bay. I've only ever lost one pullet to a predator and that was a cat. My coops aren't tiny or for small amounts of birds, so I can build walls and drop ceilings that allow me to accomplish what I need. During the winter the heat from the light will rise and give off some heat for the hens on their perches. Over the summer I use flourescent and lots more ventilation.

One other thing. I know some of you are chomping at the bit to get your first eggs sitting out their with your frying pan just a waiting for them to make you breakfast ( I'm joking), but I will tell you from experience. Hope that your girls take enough time to grow and mature before they begin to lay. If they start early the eggs are generally smaller and during their life they lay less. The vet also tells me they are more likely to prolapse. I've never had that happen myself and I hope I never do, but I do know that their laying life and often their life period is much shorter than the girls that take a bit longer. So give them a few more months and let them fully develop. I have one very sweet little Amerucana that started laying at 18 weeks. She's tiny compared to her sisters, her eggs are tiny, and sadly I don't think she will live near as long as the ones that have grown into large well built hens. Abigail is a dear though.

Thank you very much for the information. I was sincerely hoping that someone would chime in with valid, tried and true information on supplimental light, since my knowledge of such things is very limited. (I have no power to my coop. LOL)


I was just kidding about "the next day", really. It was wishful thinking on my part and my (sometimes less than) humor showing through. Hopefully most people won't take me 100% seriously when I make outlandish statements like that.

 

[chiggerbit]

Quote:
Well, I have kind of wondered if the feed quality has changed. I had chickens over ten years ago, gave them away, then got chicks again this year, and the egg yolks were a vibrant deep orange back then. Not so now. Not that they are pallid now, exactly. But they just don't have the vibrant orange color of the eggs I got back then. They're a medium yellow now. So, I just wonder if the feed has changed, and if it effects how hens lay.

 

[Cass]

Quote:
Well, I have kind of wondered if the feed quality has changed. I had chickens over ten years ago, gave them away, then got chicks again this year, and the egg yolks were a vibrant deep orange back then. Not so now. Not that they are pallid now, exactly. But they just don't have the vibrant orange color of the eggs I got back then. They're a medium yellow now. So, I just wonder if the feed has changed, and if it effects how hens lay.

I'm sure in 10 years the feed quality has gone down. Quality of everything else has. I read that to give yolks that orange color feed them marigolds. But on the other hand, it might be the breed of bird too. My neighbor's daughter couldn't eat the eggs at her friend's house cuz their yolks were so orange and they were backyard eggs. No sure what breed of chickens they are....would love to know actually, since I hatched 4 of her eggs last spring so I have 2 of that breed in my flock right now....but they are something with "brown" or "red" in the name. (Gotta love information from kids. don't ya? LOL)

 

[chiggerbit]

Quote:
Well, I have kind of wondered if the feed quality has changed. I had chickens over ten years ago, gave them away, then got chicks again this year, and the egg yolks were a vibrant deep orange back then. Not so now. Not that they are pallid now, exactly. But they just don't have the vibrant orange color of the eggs I got back then. They're a medium yellow now. So, I just wonder if the feed has changed, and if it effects how hens lay.

I'm sure in 10 years the feed quality has gone down. Quality of everything else has. I read that to give yolks that orange color feed them marigolds. But on the other hand, it might be the breed of bird too. My neighbor's daughter couldn't eat the eggs at her friend's house cuz their yolks were so orange and they were backyard eggs. No sure what breed of chickens they are....would love to know actually, since I hatched 4 of her eggs last spring so I have 2 of that breed in my flock right now....but they are something with "brown" or "red" in the name. (Gotta love information from kids. don't ya? LOL)

No, it can't be because of the breeds. I had Easter Eggers and Buff Orpington's back then, too, same as I do now. A couple of the other breeds are different. But all the eggs back then of four or five breeds were orange, and all the eggs of my four breeds now are the same--medium yellow.