Just wondering..

[TomK]

Yup..wondering if any of you oh so knowledgeable folk out there have noticed a decline in egg production of late....i mean serious...have 24 hens of varying ages at the moment...been gettting anywhwre from 12-18 eggs a day til early this week and suddenly, whammo!!! 4...maybe 6....barely enough to feed me let alone sell any... nothing has changed..same food...same water schedule..same enclosures....nothing that could cause any stress that might affect laying output....has me stumped....ideas?

[Killerbunny]

Yup. I posted on another thread what I thought the reason might be. between that and the little buggers hiding the eggs....!
Here you go.
"I find that at this time of year laying slows, mine have slowed up too. I suspect there is a "sweet spot" for daylight hours that says it's spring and a good time to hatch babies so they are stimulated to lay eggs. Mine pick up again as the day shortens in August, September. Then they moult and all bets are off LOL!"

[TomK]

Gill..theres nowhere for them to hide the eggs...it was so sudden a stoppage...had me wondering wth?

[Killerbunny]

Oh my production is down anyway and I tend to notice a drop at this time of year.

[Jaye]

Have you checked for lice or mites?
How hot does the coop get on warm days? Are they drinking enough water? Have you noticed any recent signs of predators in the vicinity of the coop/run?

[WLLady]

i've had a moderate drop with the heat we just went through-our weather is so up and down and crazy hot and then cool and then crazy hot again. and of course they're long days so they're spending more time up and burning energy that should go into egg making....

[Colleen Kinzie]

Mine went from 18-21 eggs per day to 6-12 per day!!!
I was convinced I had an egg eater
Slowly starting to increase. Today I got 14 eggs. From 23 possible egg layers

[windwalkingwolf]

I'm down eggs also, but I have a lot of hens either brooding chicks or sitting on eggs. Just had two more hens go down for the count, including Cheryl, @Killerbunny . In a clump of nettles

[KimChick]

YES!!! So it's not just my hens. I've been getting 5 - 10 out of the 15 laying hens and 6 Frey's SDP hens. Before it dropped, they were been laying 9 - 13 eggs per day.
I know we have a skunk in the vicinity (have seen it twice), but that has never stopped them from laying in the past. DH has a set a trap for said skunk.
They always have fresh water. And we've been letting them out of the enclosure quite often. I was thinking they were not getting enough protein. There have been about 4-5 eaten or flattened eggs in the past week and a half.

[Happy]

Geez I'm feeling pretty good about my 5 egg a day average out of 8 hens-3 of which are 6 years old. I'll take it!