Anybody else have chickens that aren't paying their rent?

[HotPepperQueen]

The heat this summer took a toll on my girls, but about 3 weeks of 70 degree weather and they are starting to earn their keep once again. I have 21 chickens and get about 10 eggs a day. Granted, three aren't quite old enough to be laying. Some breeds take longer than others. My easter eggers were half the size of my buff orpingtons and starting laying a month before them. My buffs were the last to lay out of all my girls. My blue andalusians that are a month younger than the buffs lay more consistantly than them, although their eggs are much smaller. Just like men, chickens can sometimes be a mystery

 

[Just-Moxie]

Mine took a severe hit with the heat wave this past few weeks. They were laying fine...then it got so hot they wouldn't even eat. Then they started molting, so that didn't help. We have gotten no eggs now for over a month. I am just going to wait and see what happens. The older ones are just over a year old, OEGB...and the 10 new chicks we got in May aren't quite old enough to lay yet.

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

I had to thin my flock this year, so I ordered spring chicks in March. They are the black and red sex-links and I have never had an egg from them. Me and a few co-workers went into together and they are complaining with the same problem. I guess it's weather related, I'm giving mine a few more weeks and then I will be canning some chicken for winter. I've gotten really good using my new pressure cooker.

 

[schmije]

Just six eggs again today. It helps a little to know that other people have had problems with the heat this year. And it's good to know that the BO's may be slower than the others. I've raised them before, and I don't remember that, but I'm almost positive that none of them have laid anything yet. If you remove the 12 BO's from the head count, the remaining 10 layers are giving me 6-8 eggs a day. For this time of year, that sounds pretty good.

I have high hopes that I'll be drowning in eggs come September. We shall see.

 

[catjac1975]

Make sure they always have lots of water. Also, I think when they are traumatized they stop laying for a bit.

I've been very disappointed in my egg production for the last few months. Our 15 girls went gangbusters this spring, and we had more eggs than we've ever had. We even made a FRESH EGGS sign for our front yard and earned a few regular customers. Then the coons found us. By the time we took care of all of them (we killed 13!), our flock was down to 6, including the two roosters. We found a lady who was reducing her flock, and we bought some 4-5 month old girls (mostly BO, but also a few other breeds). This was at the end of June.

A few of them started laying, but most of them have not. We get 6-8 eggs a day from 22 girls that SHOULD be old enough to lay (we also have 2 younger ones and 2 roos for a total of 26). I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and blaming it on the heat, but they're about to lose that excuse, because it's been much cooler for the past two weeks. Has anybody else experienced a serious drop in egg production this summer? Our girls always slow down a little, but I've never seen it this bad.

 

[vfem]

I have silkies... I don't hold my breath expecting eggs! hahaha

If I find one, ever.... I do a little dance in the middle of the yard.



Like you though, I have some young standard size layers who are coming of age. I'm getting impatient a bit, but mostly because I want those chocolate eggs from the maran, and green eggs from my maran/americana cross. Every other birds I have lays tinted cream eggs. I'm dying for variety. :weight

 

[Smiles Jr.]

<snip> Has anybody else experienced a serious drop in egg production this summer? <snip>

I have one hen that went broody back in early June. She stopped laying at that time. She sat on three golf balls for weeks until I got 6 fertile eggs from a neighbor. Then she sat on those eggs until they hatched and now she is raising the orphans like they are her own. She hasn't layed an egg in about 12 weeks. If she goes broody again this fall she'll be soup.

 

[so lucky]

Wish one of my girls would go broody.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

you might want to rethink that Lucky! i have 2 right now that have gone broody. one is a bantam faverolles cross with a cochin. she looks salmon faverolles but she's got the extreme broodiness of the cochin at 8 months old! i tried checking under her for eggs this past weekend and she gave me a good BITE, and it wasn't a pinch, she nearly took a chunk of flesh with it! now she has 14 eggs and been re-directed to a better spot to go broody in-a pet carrier so i can lock the door when she gets to the last week before hatching.

 

[so lucky]

Yeah, I hear they can be a real witch when they are broody. One of my EE's is getting awful cranky. Maybe she is going to go broody. I don't have a roo, so I would need to get some fertile eggs to put under her. I know better than to try it the first time, tho. She is fickle. I may have to just buy some POL girls. Don't want to mess with babies unless they have a mama to protect them from the other adults.