Spurious Egglaying

[frogga]

We have 4 chickens, all Goldline, we have had them for about 3 months now.

They get fed the same eac day, and have clean water always available, and get to roam our garden all day long, however each day we get a different number of eggs.

Somedays we get 4, others, including today only 1.

Is there something that I am doing wrong?

I have walked round the garden just incase they are laying them in the flowerbeds (as one of our old hens did) and found noting.

[Nicos]

Don't think so...they tend to lay every 25 hrs- so you do miss the odd day. If they tend to lay about the same time as each other then you would eventually miss aday.
Naturally they don't lay at night either-- so that alters the day length!
Were they POL?? maybe they're just getting into the hang of laying too?
Remember to look everywhere for the eggs- we have one in particular who does her utmost to hide her eggs- under leaves- behind stones, under netting- she'll even fly out of the enclosure, lay and egg and return!!!!
Good idea is to take a book and sit with them all day ( what an excuse eh???) and see what they get up to!

[Bramble-Poultry]

hiya frogger.

first things first, how old are the goldlines? goldlines are a hybrid hen, meaning that in their first year of laying, they can lay up to 320 eggs. however, egg laying can be affected in various ways.

1 - feed. all birds need food and the average hybrid has been produced to lay a good sized egg on minimal input, meaning that the hen should lay a large (60gramme) egg on about 100-125g of layers pellets.

if you feed them grain as a treat, make sure it is in the evening so they have their normal ration first in the morning, otherwise they will fill up on the grain and not get the nutrients for egg laying if they go a day without food, it can knock back the egg production for a couple of days

2 - water - eggs are made up of quite a lot of water. if the hens doesnt get access to enough water, then she can go off lay for nearly a week

3 - light - a chicken lays an egg in response to the amount of daylight available. this means that around 16 hours of sunlight must trigger the "sensor" at the back of their eye to stimulate the release of an egg. in the winter months to keep production up, you may need to supply artificial light.

4 - moulting - some birds are now moulting due to the increased warmer weather when a hen is at this stage she has to decide if she wants to lay eggs or replace feathers, she will not have enough energy to do both!

5 - mites and lice - if the bird is suffering from a bout of mites or lice, she willl be too irritated to concentrate on laying eggs follow a strict worming and delousing regime to assist them.

6 - each hen is born with a finite amount of eggs in her overies. a laying periods eggs are contained within the ovaries in lines and these are called strings. each string gets shorter as the bird ages, the first year having the greatest amount of eggs. just because she lays 320 in the first year, do not expect her to lay 320 in the second or third as she wont. more likely that in her second she will drop by 25% and about the same again each year. hybids are not long lived birds (there are exceptions to the rule, we have a 9 year old ex-battery hen) and will probably get to around 4-5 years old. the main reason for this is that they put all their energies into laying eggs not into maintaining their bodies. anyone who rehomes ex-battery hens will know how "burnt out" they can be when you first have them.

apart from these common issues, you could be like us and have low flying aircraft buzzing over the house scaring the wits out of the little blighters, or night frights from visiting foxes / badgers can upset the laying records too.

any other questions, do not hesitate to ask.

cheers

Mike @ Bramble

[Nicos]

Cor blimey BP- I wouldn't have thought of half of those things- but they sound so logical!!

[frogga]

Thanks for the information, they are all between 20-24 weeks I believe, and all are highly entertaining.

I have a friend that lives near an RAF Base who has chickens, and his chickens lay regularly and dont seem to bothered with aircraft noise, so had never thought of that, although we dont get many over our house, will ease off the corn for the next few days and see what happens, does handling them affect the egg laying at all, one seems fairly nervous around us still, whereas another jumps up onto our laps when we are eating lunch outside and expects some! Cheek of the hen!

[ChrisB]

Hi Frogga

I think everything has been covered by others, but rest assured it is quite normal for hens to lay loads one day and virtually none the next. They like to keep us on our toes.

You said they 'Get fed the same each day'. Are you weighing out quantities or are they able to feed ad lib?

Try not to worry too much and enjoy your girls

[Bramble-Poultry]

we are right under the flight path of RAF Shawbury, where they train the helicopter pilots. they are currently teaching the kids night flying, and i notice that the egg laying has gone down this week.

they literally are only a few hundred feet above the house and touch down in the field next door before lifting off again. Not sure what the hens think but the turkys gobble at the helicopters really loudly as if to say "s*d off we are trying to sleep"

[RichmondHens]

Hi Frogga. Mine lay in "waves" too - one day everyone lays, the next not so many, the next everyone again etc etc. As long as they seem healthy in every other respect and they are getting layers pellets with not too many treats then I wouldn't worry too much.

[Nicos]

Count yourself lucky!!!

I'm getting one egg a day ( if I'm lucky) from my 7 gals - one is being a mommy, 5 are broody and one is freeranging with the 2 cockerels!

I thought I'd have loads to give away over Easter - as pressies- but 2 days of sunshine and they went all hormonal on me!!