Not getting eggs?

[Miss M]

Okay, our 11 hens are now two years old. They were producing very well (7 - 11 eggs per day) until just a few months ago.

A few months ago, we started having dog problems. So we chalked the severe drop in eggs up to stress (the chickens are confined to the coop/run and rabbitry, and dogs cannot get to them). Then I figured their ongoing molting was slowing them up. Now, of course, it's cold and the days are shorter.

But could there be something else going on? We're getting 2 eggs a day. Last winter, we were getting 6 - 8.

I understand that a chicken's most productive year is its first year, but from what I've read, they don't just turn off the faucet once they are past that.

 

[MaggieJ]

My experience has been that first year hens will lay right through the winter, but after that they do take a vacation during the period of shortest days. If you add supplemental lighting on a timer (add the extra time in the morning and let them go to sleep naturally at dusk) they should do better. I used to do this, but now I just let them have their time off. Usually we still get some eggs, between my big hens and MC's Silkies.

 

[akane]

Chickens are really light sensitive. Some have been bred towards better winter laying but most seem to need light. We don't bother anyway because every egg from Dec through Feb will be frozen. We actually decided to not keep any chickens over this winter. With what snowfalls are looking like, not having gotten the coop design finished, and wanting new breeds in the spring it seems a good idea to make stew instead.

 

[Marinea]

Ours dropped off recently, as well. We gave them some oyster shell and turned on their heat lamp. Production is now back up. We even have a hen trying to set. Hope she still wants to in a couple months

 

[Miss M]

Thank y'all... if production had dropped off in the last few weeks, I wouldn't have questioned it. It's the fact that production came to a near halt when it was still very warm that had me wondering.

I know lights to extend the perceived daylight aren't ideal, as they push the bodies of the hens, but we've been at such low production for so long, we're almost to the point of having to buy eggs in addition to feeding the chickens. I think I'll go ahead and give them a little extra daylight in the morning.

Can I expect to be back up to 8 - 11 eggs when it warms up? Or had I better get some more layers going?

 

[akane]

I don't think lights to increase laying stress hens at all. You don't have jungle fowl. Those are long domesticated chickens and they are being fed high quality food designed to support the laying habits of domesticated chickens. I actually like gamebird crumbles and then oyster shell to make up for the lower calcium level compared to layer food. Gamebird feed has higher protein and better quality animal proteins.

It's kind of like various meat rabbits. If you get a good meat rabbit line and you feed them to produce they can breed pretty heavy for years and then go on to live a full lifespan if you don't cull them by butchering. The only time I've had heavily bred animals die sooner is when they had birthing complications that chickens don't have much of. Prolapsed vents are fairly rare along with eggs breaking internally. I put a very small, quieter bantam breed not bred for production indoors (they aren't any different than keeping a pair of medium-large parrots inside) and under light year round. They laid well for 4 years and ok for year 5 and 6. Then I sold them to be pets where last I heard they were still alive at about 8years old now. The person has a huge farm and just collects everyone's old layers and roosters to a retirement home. Their kids loved my little black tailed white and black tailed buff bantams so I parted with them to keep bantam EE in a new little coop we'd built.

 

[Miss M]

Oh, wow, thank you, Akane!

 

[TwoAcreDream]

This is what works for me this time of year.
My current flock I have had 6.5 years. I have hens in different age groups.
About 12 are my senior girls, at 4, 5, and 6 yrs old. I kept this group because they are my broodies. Then I have 10 that are this summer's pullets and they have not started to lay yet, but hopefully soon. I have 7 new pullets that have only been laying a short time now. Then there is the group of 19 that supposedly are this year's birds and stopped laying within the week of me buying them. So 2 months now. But 2 of this group, I am finally seeing in the nest boxes. Also when I bought the 19 group of amber sex links, there was 9 brown leghorns that are supposedly on their second yr of laying. The brown leghorns crashed real hard in their molt. Just coming out of it now. Their feathers are back nice and hopefully their combs go red soon instead of the dull pink. I was told recently that leghorns need a warm building to function well in cold climates due to their small body size. Well these poor hens will have to figure it out , because the human is not giving them heat. They do have a nice coop with a big add on room. Then there is the 6, I bought from the neighbor back end of August. They are beautiful hens but have not layed 1 egg since being here. And another 5 or 6 that I bought late this summer, from another group. So I have quite the variety of ages, and backgrounds. I redid my flock this summer as I planned on only having 30 hens this winter. I was doing oh so fine, till I bought the 19 plus 9 group sight unseen. That really brought my numbers back up.

In order to keep egg production up enough in the winter, so the hens at least take care of their feed bill, I have to push the protein. I switch over to the highest protein percentage layer mash from the local mill. I go the extra step and grind up any venison scraps and fat. One of my egg customers even saves me his venison scraps. I cook a pot of mush for them , several times a week. Which is basically any leftovers, etc. Once it cools off, I divide it up between several bowls. Anything I can do, to push extra feed at them I do. The one neighbor saved me her pumpkins after removing the seeds for next years garden.

I used to worry about lights. Now I just leave the one light bulb on all day. When it is time for me to go in the house late afternoon, the light get shut off. This time of year, they get about 10 hrs of light. The amount of light does make a difference but in the winter, I am not going to make it big priority anymore.

 

[Miss M]

Thank you, TwoAcreDream! This chicken thing is getting a little more complex, now that the birds are older.

 

[Marinea]

Another option is to replace a portion of your flock each year as they age. When spring comes, we start hatching chicks, and replace about a third of our hens. We sell the rest of the chicks.

This gives us a good variety of hens each year- come fall we have a bunch starting to lay, some that are at their peak. some that are just starting to slow, and a few older hens that are kept until the following spring to be the brooders for next year's batch.

 

[michaels4gardens]

I have a timer and a light bulb in my coop, the light comes on at 5:30 am, and goes off at 8 am, it comes back on at 5pm and goes off at 9 pm, Chickens will lay a lot more eggs, if they have 14 to 16 hrs of light / day, as the hens get older they do taper off on laying so the light thing becomes more important, as a hen get older feed is also more important, - I make sure they get greens , and scraps, -- and in the summer, outside time [and the greens and bugs they eat] for the hens will greatly lengthen their productive life, -- I have had hens 12 or 13 years old laying still, and about the time they stopped laying they just died of old age , -- but ,when i raised them in a coop all the time with just commercial feed, 2 to 3 years was about as long as most were productive,
[The reason for not having the light on only in the morning ,has nothing to do with whats best for chickens, -- it is so I can see what I am doing when I get home from work after dark, -- it would be better for the birds if the light was only on early in the morning and I let it get dark naturally---]

 

[Miss M]

Okay, thank you all! I have a lot of options and things to think about now!

 

[JessicaR]

my hens have also stopped laying, and haven't laid for about 2 months now. First it was due to molting now I think its because its dark. Unfortunately I cant run electric to the coop so I have to by eggs now. I am going to get some new hens this spring and send some of the older girls to camp since half of them are 4 years old now.