Enough to affect egg production? I have about 75 chickens here in the desert southwest and my egg production went south in the hot months {as usual} but by now they are usually back to laying lots of eggs. Today I only got 22 eggs.they look healthy and eat like horses, and I keep their laying boxes reasonably clean. I'm stumped.
Do chickens get sick?
Is there anything different about them coughing, wheezing, sneezing, runny poo?
Hows their feathers look have you checked them for mites?
Is their behavior the same as usual?
I havent checked them for mited, but I will. other than that they seem pretty normal, no coughing or runny anything.
Check for mites they can cause them to not lay. If theres no other symptoms i don't know what it could be i'm sure some others here may know something i haven't mentioned.
Mine got through the summer heat then started molting...that's another thing which will slow production -got 1 egg from 24 birds today, though a few are young enough to have yet to start laying.
Did the weather change drastically? that's another thing which will throw them off sometimes.
This message was edited Dec 3, 2008 7:03 PM
What about the hours of daylight? Isn't that the primary factor at this time of year? My laying is way down for that reason, and I don't supplement with extra light because I like to give them a break.
Besides the time of year...
I just read that dehydration is a major factor. May not be the case right now.. but it said one day without water can make them stop laying for up to two weeks! I thought that was a worthy tidbit of info!!
I think she/he went to check for mites and hasn't returned yet. Didn't think about the time and light hours or the moulting.
WOW! I did not realize all the factors that can affect the production of eggs.
One day of water=2 weeks no eggs!
I think egg production is taken for granted, (at least it was in my case) but when you get to reading as to what is involved and all the things that can affect it, it's really amazing!
Makes sense that such a physically demanding act would be the first system to shut down on any kind of stress.. Interesting to me..
When the pox struck my flock they had just come out of a molt and hadn't laid in 2 months. When the pox hit some came down with it while others didn't but the stress caused them not to lay. I have some fawn duckwings,brown reds, crelle and lemon blues that haven't laid a egg in 5 months
(I'll take 2 weeks any day)
Yes anything can cause stress to birds. In my case it's the winter time and the daylight time. I have a few people who want eggs really bad, but like I told DH, I'm not about to put a light out there. I make sure they have water everyday and food. I also give the fresh veggies too and this weekend I will be getting oaster shells for them. I am going to stop with the crushed egg shells because of the many eggs they have killed on me.
rhodiegirl i did read somewhere not to feed hens egg shells as it could encourage them to eat eggs.
That's nice to know. Wish I knew that back then. My dad used to always feed the chickens crushed egg shells. When we were kids, we had to crush them for my dad.
I have a i didn't know not related to chickens. I planted some milk weed this year to attract butterflys but was disapointed when it was ignored and none fed on it. I didn't understand it had the most beautiful blooms and the only butterfly that ever ate from it was a passing Monarch. I said yea they really like the milk weed i won't listen to that again.
Well some ugly looking worms got on it and allmost ate it to the ground i was really upset. I was so glad when something came along and killed them all.
Well i went to the butterfly forum and ask about the worms and found out they were Monarch Catapillers. I felt so bad that i was glad they were dead and so stupid for not knowing what they were. Live and Learn ^_^
Thanks for all of the Info, but I didnt see any crawleys on them but did see a few runny poos. what do I do about that?
Sorry didn't look at the forum before i answered your Dmail. I'll find Claire and Catscan.
Runny poos. hmmmm. What color are the runny poos?
Every 3rd poo (I think it is) that comes out is a caecal poo. That means that it is from the caecum and it is a natural thing. It is sort of light brownish-yellow color.
There is a really good British site with pictures of normal and abnormal hen poop. It sounds gross but it's quite helpful. I am lookign for it.
If there is blood in it--then it is probably cocci. But adult chickens are not usually bothered by cocci. Perhaps another intestinal parasite. Stress can also cause runny poop.
If you grind up egg shells quite fine--they are not suppose to contribute to egg eating. But if they are recognizable as eggs, it can cause problems.
Here is one good link but there is a better one, still looking
http://www.omlet.co.uk/guide/guide.php?view=Chickens&cat=Chicken%20Health&sub=droppings
Found it. Check this out and see if the poops are comparable to any of these pictures. Most of these are normal. The ones toward the bottom are not.
http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=17568
Those might be good for the bird link thread if you wanna link poo...
I've been taking all the glory cuz nobody else posts.
Thanks a lot to everyone for your help. I hope I dont have to get down on my hands and knees to check this poop out........LOL
Your Welcome glad we could help.