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5 Mar ’12
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So we have 7 laying hens and over the past week their egg production has gone way down... to the point for the past 3 days we haven't gotten a single egg (well, today we got 1 late in the day).
- They have plenty of chicken food , oyster shells, and water.
- They are enclosed in a 32x64 grassy area.
Weather hasn't changed much, they are eating well, etc. Not sure why they aren't laying. I don't think they are eating eggs as the kids go and check for eggs 20 times a day and I don't see any yolks, shells, etc. to make me think they are eating them. The coop is well protected and the egg boxes are inside -- I am fairly certain no animals are getting inside to eat the eggs. the chickens normally make a noise when laying, a loud squawk. We haven't heard that in days.
So I am perplexed. Getting an egg today is good but I don't know if there is something else we should try? For the last week or so they have only had the chicken feed and water -- not many scraps. Yesterday and today we have been giving them tons of scraps because a family was visiting. Not sure if that helped with the one egg, but that seems to be the only difference.
Any advice?
15 Feb ’12
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I would say they are going into molt, are they dropping feathers?
5 Mar ’12
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Nope. Does that happen all at once for all of the chickens?
15 Feb ’12
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yeah it can, mine are going through it right now, all their rear ends are bare as a new born, they started about 3 weeks ago
5 Mar ’12
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Well, I don't think they were molting but all of them started laying again for some reason. We got a bunch of eggs over the last 3 days. Check out what we found in the egg box on the first day of laying! The one on the left is so huge. Bet she was happy to lay that one.
3 Nov ’12
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Also keep an eye that they're getting enough protein. In general I believe egg layers need 16-18% protein for egg production. Glad they're back at it for ya!
15 Feb ’12
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That's a good point. What do you all feed your birds. Since we have ducks turkey and chickens we feed them all multi flock starter grower
5 Mar ’12
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I feed them layer feed from Tractor Supply -- Dumore is the brand I think. Plus plenty of oyster shells and scraps. They should be GTG -- something just happened I guess.
I also got word that one of the birds has been pecking the eggs so I just ordered a set of ceramic eggs. Hopefully that will put an end to that problem.
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