Any idea why our chickens are only laying one egg when we usually got 9-10. We think it is the

[jwirr]

extreme heat but don't know. Any help will be appreciated.

[Kali]

1. are they free range?

my first few guesses would be rats skunks snakes or egg-sucking dogs, somebody has gone broody and they are hoarding eggs in a secret location, one or more of the flock has become and egg eater

or it is the heat

[hlthe2b]

2. I'd bet first on the heat...

All my friend's hens are under-producing lately too--after a long hot spell.

[mopinko]

3. mine are misbehaving also.

not that bad, but 5-7 being more normal that 10, which is one each. had 2 hens go broody/insane, and stir up the whole damn hen house.
i have a couple hiders, and think i might have a cannibal. right now she is in the henpecked hospital getting over her rooster burn. i think she was long term deficient from feather plucking. i will give her till the end of her confinement to straighten up. (also have been told that some of my shorty fans sometimes just have to have an egg. i am cool with that.)

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Going thru molt reduces eggs

Our hens are laying a lot right now, after a period of not so many eggs.
We have 8 hens, so the 2 that went broody did not slow the total egg collection down by much, but when the molting time came, that did create a slowdown.

Do you have your chicken area protected from invaders? Snakes, racoons, weasels etc. can eat a lot of eggs at one go.

[jwirr]

5. Our chickens are free range but they are in a fenced area as we live in the woods. We have 12

chickens and they eat good. It probably isn't predators but we will check the nests to see if there might be evidence. It does seem to be the heat as we have had several days of real cold for this time of year and we are once again getting more eggs.

Thank all of you for the help.

[bvar22]

6. What part of the country do you live in?

How old are your birds?
Older birds (3 is old) slow down their egg production,
but not a drastic drop like you cite.

Are your birds confined to a coop?
If they Free Range, the whole flock can decide they have found a better place to lay some place else. If your birds have access to dense underbrush or briar thickets, these new nests can be hard to locate.

We live adjacent to a National Forest,
and there are plenty of predators,
so we built a Ft Knox Coop where we count them,
and lock them in a sunset.

Ft Knox Coop is surrounded with a large chicken wire enclosure that would stop or slow down a daytime curious dog or other predator.
We let our birds out of their coop, and into this well mowed and maintained area in the morning. They still have access to their nests in the coop,
and most are finished laying by 2:pm.
We then let them out to Free Range where ever they wish to for the rest of the day,
and we are in the area, usually working in the veggie Garden or somewhere else close by if anything happens.

When we suddenly notice a drop in egg production that radical,
it usually means a big Black Arkansas Chicken Snake has moved into the coop,
and is hiding under the hay somewhere. We've caught some that were 6' in length,
and can easily eat a bunch of eggs. They will swallow the eggs whole,
and even eat any ceramic or wood Fake Eggs you might be using.

If something else is eating the eggs, you WILL be able to find some remnant pieces of egg shells,
or a sticky egg wet spot where they had their meal.

As someone above pointed out, egg production stops during molt,
and it will take about 6 weeks before you start seeing eggs again.
This usually happens in very early Fall, so it seems a little early for that,
but its possible.


You will know if you have a broody hen (wants to be a mother).
She will go into something resembling a trance, and will seldom leave the nest.

[jwirr]

7. We live in NE MN. The chickens are confined at night in a storage size shed but have access to

range during the day. On the hot nights we screened the door to the shed but it was still hot. It has cooled off not and they are starting to lay again. That is good as we just got several customers for our excess eggs and then they stopped laying. Fortunately our customers are understanding.

[bvar22]

8. Love the Arrowhead.

Glad your chickens are bock on the job!

[fasttense]

9. Here in the South, almost all free range chickens reduce their laying during the heat of summer.

Unless you keep them in air conditioned and heated coops, chickens tend to reduce the quantities of eggs they lay during extreme heat and cold.

This is why big Ag keeps their laying hens in cages. It's easier to keep them in AC and Heat when they are locked up in a building.

At the farmer's market, almost all egg producers are short on eggs during the heat of summer.

In winter the shorter daylight cycle will also reduce the number of eggs laid. Big Ag keeps lights on the chickens in winter to prevent a slow down in egg production.

We just let the hens do their thing without providing artificial stimulation. We just let them do what comes naturally, just like Grand Mom did.

[womanofthehills]

10. I give them protein

and I get more eggs right away. For a few days, I'll give them sardines, mackerel or hard boil some of their older eggs . I'm in NM and it's been hot all summer. Also, when it's really cold, I do the same thing and it works for me. Whenever they slow down, I give extra protein. I also only give them organic feed and organic vegetables.

[fasttense]

11. Be careful about the extra protein

We had our free range hens on a locally produced layer feed, which turned out to be high in protein. After we introduced the new local feed, our hens were laying fine for about a month and then they almost stopped laying. When we went back to the older feed, lower in protein, they rapidly increased their laying. Too much protein can also decrease egg production. Our hens are free range and get a lot of protein from the bugs, worms and slugs they eat. I think the added protein in their feed pushed them to the too much protein level.

[HealUS]

12. Cool Chicks

Hey there, Jwirr!

Just brainstorming - if you've got an overheating problem with your chickens
- there are a bunch of ways to set up an inexpensive/free source of cool air
on YouTube. Here's just one example:

This one can be put together in just a few minutes and would work
fine outside. It does put off a little mist and works best in dry climates
which could be good or bad for your situation, but in that case there's
plenty of other "cool" ideas. Just do a search for DIY AC
. . . actually . . . here's the link for that search. Why not?
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=diy+ac&sm=3

Good luck!