These are the four ladies I currently have at the Secret Lair. There are nine more just like them, from the same batch, at the Big Chickenhouse at Landlady’s place.
Until Autumn these chickens have been exemplary. They don’t fight, they don’t pluck one another. Some are more bold than others but none are neurotically fearful. They’re beautifully formed, beautifully feathered, and all last summer they laid so many eggs it literally became a neighborhood problem. Until winter these were easily the best chickens we ever had.
This coming Spring they’ll turn 2. They spent their first calendar year just gaining maturity, getting fed for free. 2017 was their first productive year, and I fully expected things to taper off from there. This winter they had their first molt, and between that and the short days I was unsurprised when their production fell right off.
I was surprised after the solstice, when they were all fully feathered again and the days started getting longer, and they pretty much stopped laying eggs entirely.
Those four in the picture above? They haven’t laid a single egg since Feb. 1. The nine at Landlady’s place lay one egg every 2-3 days on average. Yeah, I keep records.
I’m starting to wonder if I should plan to slaughter hens – but I don’t understand how or why this happened. They seem in fine health, there’s certainly nothing wrong with their appetite. They’re not acting unusually neurotic. If I can’t think of something to help them get back in action, they’re all going to the freezer. They’re not pets, and chicken feed ain’t free.
Suggestions? I’m open to experimentation.
Not a chicken expert by any means but I do find this interesting. Are the two groups eating the same things? I assume they are since you take care of both but I can see a deficiency of something like calcium being an issue, especially post molt.
I’m also curious whether they’re existed to the same light levels. Obviously day length is going to be the same but are the ladies at the lair in a substantially darker yard than those at landlady’s?
The fact that it’s all four makes me think that it’s something environmental rather than just dud hens.
Only thing I can think of is light levels
Light is certainly the most important part of their stimulation to lay eggs. There is no shortcut around this requirement. You can fake it with a good full spectrum light in the henhouse for a few hours morning and evening, but a little LED bulb isn’t going to cut it, I’m afraid. They should begin to lay again soon anyway, as the day lengthens. Hens produce the greatest number of eggs in their first three years, everything else being equal. So please give these girls another year.
Rooster. Just saying. Birds seem to lay more around one.
The ideal day length for laying is 14 hours. Up here in Alaska at almost 62 degrees north latitude I have a twelve volt LED light bar about two feet long in my coup hooked to a marine battery that I swap out about weekly. I turn the light on before it gets dark in the afternoon and turn it off to give me fourteen hours from dawn. My second year hens are a bit slow coming back from molt but we have had a couple weeks with day time highs below zero. Last year with new pullets we had 9-12 eggs a day out of twelve hens during the dark days of winter. You should be able to get another year out of your birds if you give them enough day length.
Light is important. I use cheap dollar store “solar pathway” lights. Charge them in the day, put them in at dusk. Is the heat/insulation about the same at both locations?
You can give them more light or just wait for days to get longer!! Good luck!
You can use thrift store mirrors large enough to cover the coop walls, placed to reflect light. There is a daylight source?? I’ve seen it done. The chickens also seem to enjoy looking at the chicken reflections. A used insulated skylight? SolaTube? Chickens are funny. But this time of year their issue is almost certainly light as mentioned by all above. Or boredom. Chickens are easily bored. Cabbage or corn on a string suspended from the ceiling will always cheer them up. Food is always good, but chickens love their fun too.