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Author Topic: Getting the hens to lay again???  (Read 5715 times)

Offline Frantz

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Getting the hens to lay again???
« on: May 01, 2008, 11:32:57 pm »
hey Guys,
I feel like I have to reintroduce myself. I have had a absolutely crazy travel schedule with a merger that we just did. So I have not been myself lately. I hope that all is well in all of your worlds and the craziness that we all call the outside world is not effecting you all. Ok, so I am back now and my girls are not laying, I mean not laying at all. I know that the guy I had taking care of them was not feeding them and watering them with the same love that I do. But they are not laying at all. Most of my girls ( I have about 35) are just now a year old. I have them split into two groups and I have a good young rooster on both groups. I have been back only a couple of days, I have of course kept them on good feed and such. But what do I need to do to lite them up again?? Any suggestions? I have heard of a 20% protien feed that will help, but I don't want to do that if I don't have to. I have them on a combo of 16% lay crumble and pellet. With a little scratch here and there for treats. One group (19 hens and 1 roo) have access to a 12x35 flight pen outside as well as their hen house. Plenty of boxes to lay in and such. Last year before the snows I was getting about 30 eggs a day from these girls. Of course we slowed down a little through the winter, but we seemed to get back on our game as spring approached. So anyway if you all have any suggestions I would love to hear them.
Thanks all, and very glad to be back.
Frantz
Don't be yourself, "Be the man you would want your daughters to marry!!"

Offline Cindi

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Re: Getting the hens to lay again???
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2008, 10:15:12 am »
Frantz, welcome back, I have been wondering about you, because I haven't seen you around, good to hear that it was just work.  By the way, where are my pink snips?  JP somehow magically turned them pink and I need them back, he is a bad boy!!!!   :evil: ;) :) :)

Sounds like you have been busier than busy can be.

About your hens, I would love to hear some answers.  YOu know we have several forum members that are pretty good with this kind of stuff, hee, hee, not mentioning names, they know who they are and they know what they did, hee, hee, remember that show?

My chickens were laying great guns too, and have slowed down quite a bit, still getting some eggs, but yes, I wonder what is going on.  They are young ones too, we culled the old gals about a month ago.  I thought as the daylight lengthened and warmed up the girls would really get going.

You will hear some great answers, just be patient (how is that done by the way) and the answers will come, I will be lurking, waiting too, hee, hee.  Have the most wonderful and awesomely great day, Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline JP

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Re: Getting the hens to lay again???
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2008, 11:13:46 am »
What about placing some fake eggs under their butts, could this stimulate them into laying? I thought I saw this as an option from one of you chicken gurus.


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Offline poka-bee

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Re: Getting the hens to lay again???
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2008, 11:26:32 am »
Franz, they missed you! ;)  Might they be going into an adult moult?  Seems to be a weird time of year, you would think they would be going gangbusters it being spring.. :? & moult later in the summer.  There are those on here that are better @ chix than I.  I would like to know also.  I've never had more than 5-6 chix at a time, this is the 1st year to have a bunch.  Mine never moulted all at the same time either & slowed but didn't stop laying completely..a mystery!  Good luck Jody
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Offline Frantz

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Re: Getting the hens to lay again???
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2008, 11:56:10 am »
Thanks guys, as I said glad to be back. My life went crazy about March 1st and is just now starting to calm down. Anyway, I thought about the fake eggs thing. Maybe I will try that. Good Idea. Also the adult moult thing has crossed my mind, but they are only a year old and with both groups not laying I figured that it had to be some kind of feed and water thing or something like that. Who knows. I wondered about putting them on the 20%feed thing but don't want to hurt the gals. So lets wait and see.
As I said, good to be back.
Ps the bees are just now starting to get out. We had 4" of snow yesterday and 28 degrees.... On May 1st. I think I am going to move to Phx Az now that we have a store down there. This winter about put me over the edge.
F
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Offline randydrivesabus

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Re: Getting the hens to lay again???
« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2008, 12:22:56 pm »
I don't think the fake eggs will do much. They should be laying a lot now. Maybe the weather got them all messed up. Feed and water on a regular basis should do it. Don't overfeed.

Offline thomashton

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Re: Getting the hens to lay again???
« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2008, 01:04:13 pm »
This is what I would do:

1) Put some fake eggs in. May not help too much, but will remind them what the nest boxes are for.

2) Make sure they always have water. Even if they don't have food. They have to have it. Eggs are like 99% water. The fastest way to halt egg production is no water. This is what I always tell the people who look after my chickens when I am out of town.

3) Make sure they have enough light. I am in Utah too so I know what your light is like. I am still even giving them a few extra hours of artificial light. Make sure they have 14 hours or so.

4) Give them free choice feed. Make sure it is always full. I would go ahead and try the 20% too just to get their protien levels back up.

5) Give them oyster shell/calcium to make sure they can produce egg shells. If they haven't been fed properly, they may not have the right minerals needed.

Don't know if your problem would be handled by just one of these conditions, but you might as well try all of them and do a systemic fix instead of trying one here and one there. Get them back laying ASAP. Feed prices right now are too high to be feeding them as pets.
After 18 months of reading and preparation, my girls finally arrived on April 11th (2006)!

Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: Getting the hens to lay again???
« Reply #7 on: May 02, 2008, 06:56:16 pm »
One item often over looked in egg laying chickens is  the nest box.  My hens wren't doing so well and the top of the nest box had broken so the hens could roost on the dividers and poop in the nest boxes.  My wife didn't put down enough litter on the floor when she cleaned the henhouse either so they weren't laying well in what litter there was either.  They made a dust hole and began laying eggs in it.  I rebuilt the nest boxes with new top, spread more litter on the floor and filled each nest box with old hay from the barn.  I went from geting 1-3 eggs a day to getting 7-9 almost over night.  They are now laying exclusively in the nest boxes, the egg shells are clean, not dirty, and I replace the hay or add to it every few days. 

Fake eggs work under the right conditions as hens have a tendency to lay in the same nest.  the more chickens the more nests are necessary.  I have 13 laying hens and 3 nest boxes, the nest box has anywhere from 2-5 eggs in it and one nest box may be empty on any given day but the egg count has become standardized at a average of 8 per day.
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Offline Beekissed

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Re: Getting the hens to lay again???
« Reply #8 on: May 03, 2008, 02:38:13 am »
Slide on over to the Backyard Chicken forum and those folks will tell you all about hens!  I heard one fellow say to mix cayenne pepper in their laying mash and hold out your hands!!!  Says his dad raised chickens for many years and always used this method and it always worked.  Be interesting to find out.  Be a lot of hens with sore butts from that cayenne!!!!  :-D
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Offline Kev

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Re: Getting the hens to lay again???
« Reply #9 on: May 03, 2008, 08:38:06 pm »
Frantz,

One key questions: did they lay at all after the molt? Sometimes they'll molt, lay a little and just stop. These chickens are stew pot chickens, at least from what I can read. All the literature recommends culling them as poor layers. Good layers should come right back after the molt and be almost as productive as their first year.

Kev
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Offline thomashton

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Re: Getting the hens to lay again???
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2008, 03:20:07 pm »
Great point Brian. Nest boxes are critical. My boxes are open in the back against the wall so they jump up on a platform and walk behind them where the boxes are dark for the most part. Then the front is on hinges that I can open up and retrieve the eggs.

Private, dark, clean nest boxes will help a ton.
After 18 months of reading and preparation, my girls finally arrived on April 11th (2006)!