Would too many roosters cause an egg drought?

[affacat]

Free feeding means they have feed available every hour they are awake.
It makes sure they all get all they need.

I actually realized that after reading the next post. We could probably figure out a way to free feed but we currently don't because we have sheep that are ridiculous and would eat it all. But I suppose we may need to look into that given the situation.


Right now we feed the chickens before we let any other animals out so they have time to eat it all. I can try setting up somewhere where they can free feed.

 

[affacat]

The exact opposite.

Free feeding means that the birds have access to feed 100% of daylight hours.

Aren't there any places that the chickens can go that the sheep can't?

In theory, until you meet our sheep. But yes, maybe. They may be too big by now to squeeze through chicken doors like they used to. Sheep are insane. Lovely, friendly, sweet, and insane.

 

[affacat]

I need to find the various threads i posted in about this, but we have at least somewhat solved our problem. We used to feed them in the morning and sometimes at lunch, plus freerange and kitchen leftoverd. We have now invested in a set of all day feeders so they can go back to their run and get food whenever they want. We went from averaging 2 to 3 eggs a day to 6-8 a day after a week, so i think this was the issue.

We also think at least one is laying in the alpaca shed and that the dogs are eating it before we find it. No evidence except a bowl shape in the hay.

This, plus our weather, plus molting season could explain everything. I'm very curious to see what I production in the spring is like.

I'll probably just going to cut and paste this response into the various threads I asked for advice in since I dont want to retype but want to pass along success and advice for anyone else struggling with low egg production.

 

[affacat]

Is there a reason that you don't free-feed them?

Is there room at the feeders for all of them to eat at the same time? Any chance of dominant birds hogging the feed so that potential layers might not be getting sufficient nutrition?

This was the post that solved the problem. As much as I liked my previous set up (reused old gutters for a great feeding area), I purchased several large feeders (full feed bag each) and gave them all day access.

Eggs production went up noticably after a week or so. We're still lower than Id like (we get 6 to 8 a day) but now weather, molting, and a few errant eggs lost to dogs finding them is a bit more feasible whereas before it was clear something was wrong.

Thanks! Again!

 

[nuthatched]

What do you feed? And how many rosters to hens? Have they been molting or excessive heat?

 

[affacat]

What is the breakdown of your flock?

Different breeds, ages, sexes, etc?

Any females of ~18months or older are likely to be molting at this time of year.

Any senior hens who have been through several molts already are likely to reduce laying to only a few eggs a week or even to stop laying completely.

A high male-to-female ratios *can* stress the hens and that can reduce or even stop laying.

What other sources of stress might there be in their ranging area?

Also, what feed do they get and how often?

28 chickens across maybe 12 different breeds. 17 barnyard mix fowls born this year.

We've had chickens for a long time and never had this kind of issue, though we've never had this many. We were getting a 12 a day early summer and then count started dropping. We had seven or eight broodies for an extended period which led to our 17 new chickens this year.

There aren't really any stressors in our yard, the only new issue is we have a large pup but she's quite good around the chickens and rarely romps at them. Our egg issue started well before she joined our household.

We had two roosters before the 17 new chickens. We got quite lucky with our 17 and only have five new roosters, for a total of seven roosters.

We are averaging maybe 4 eggs a day.

They have 6 nest boxes in the coop, and the 4 outside nearby, and then 4 more in an old coop they sometimes lay eggs in but don't sleep in. We basically get an egg in each area.

I'll cull a bunch of roosters if I have to but we honestly have a nice batch of non-aggressive roosters so it's a shame, none of them get out of line. I occasionally see them having at it (not major fights, more like one chasing another for a couple seconds) but very rarely.

 

[affacat]

I'm so glad that was helpful.

I forget where, many years ago, I read that if you feed wet feed at intervals rather than free feed you need to have room for everyone at once. Maybe some old article in a magazine or some old book from a library.

My old set up was great (minus egg production). Two 10ft old plastic gutters staked down provided a lot of feeding area. Chickens could fit on both sides of the gutter.

That said, my new feeding setup is 1000x better because I don't need to feed them every day.

Egg production continues to increase. We are at 9-11 a day. I'm hoping to start breaking a dozen during winter and then more like 30 in the spring

 

[MysteryChicken]

I haven't experienced the issue you're having, & I keep multiple roosters to multiple hens.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I currently have a few molting hens, and young hens (5-6 months old and younger.) Once my young hens start to lay, my molting hens will restart to lay, and I will get a crazy amount of eggs.

 

[affacat]

What do you feed? And how many rosters to hens? Have they been molting or excessive heat?

We feed them layer pellets from a local Mill. I believe we have 45 chickens total and seven of them are roosters.

They get two full scoops (those big red scoops, I think they are 2qt scoops?) A day plus free-range all day.

We had strange weather this year but it wasn't particularly hot. We had a large batch of broody chickens this year, maybe 7 at a time which caused havoc in our nest boxes.

We have plenty of room in the coop but some of the newest batch sleep on the floor instead of the roosts anyway.

They spread out across the yard over the day and the roosters don't seem to fight very often at all. It's all very relaxed, really.