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I got 3 hens from Omlet at the end of June. Miss Pepperpot has laid very regularly: around 6 a week. One of the Gingers is laying around 2 a week, and the other has only laid 2 softies since we had her. They must be over 6 months old now, and my hubby is threatening her with the pot* if she doesn't start laying soon.

 

Any ideas? No mite I can see. When should they be wormed after getting them?

 

*He wouldn't really (I don't think... )

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Oh dear, I'm afraid I'm joining you Amanda. About once a week I get 3 eggs a day but the rest of the week its either just 1 or 2 a day.

 

My neighbour caught me in the run having a 'stern' word with the girls :wink::D I feel sorry for them as I used to be able to give them eggs regularly. They even handed me back some boxes this week in the hope of eggs but I just don't have enough.

 

It doesn't bother me too much as long as I have enough eggs for the family but I think that next spring I will get a couple more chickens - eek! :shock:

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It's so frustrating to think that last year I was giving eggs away to friends, family & even patients at my work and now I don't even have enough for myself!

 

I'd love to get some more girlies but unless I want to go for a world record of how many hens you can fit in an eglu and have the RSPCA knocking at my door :shock: I think I'd better give it a miss :(

 

We've had 8 eggs already this month which is an improvement but I do think that only one of my girls is laying.

 

Amanda

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24 weeks isn't really that old, I'm sorry to tell you :lol: . Are there any signs from her, like the wattles/comb getting bigger and redder? Does she crouch when you approach?

 

No, and no, but Miss Pepperpot (<--- in my avatar), does. I'll tell my hubby he just needs to be more patient then!

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I feel everyones pain - our last egg was the 29th September. Hopefully when they've finished moulting they'll return - Saphy's face was bright red today so with any luck that means she's due to come back to lay :pray:

 

I love them all anyway but some little rewards would be nice. :D

 

P

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To add insult to injury the eggs we are getting have a funny taste to them and we think it's from the hemcore in the nestbox :(

 

We've only just opened the bag & it seems to have more citronella (or whatever it is that they use) in it than all the previous bags put together :shock:

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Sorry to say my little madams aren't producing much either. Some are complete freeloaders (Daisy's not laid at all since January or Hope since May, and Dandelion and Joy seem to think it's an occasional option) and one is just cheeky. Moon laid every day for the first two weeks of freedom and not so much as a softie since :shock:. I'm getting quite a few softies from the others, as some of them are moulting, and generally manage only 1 or 2 eggs a day from 9 hens.

 

Words have been said to do with performance-related corn and grapes, and the slow cooker has been left out meaningfully in the kitchen, but there's no improvement yet :lol:

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I've been buying eggs for months now and I'm still shocked at the price of them! From my girls I've had 15 eggs so far this month, a few softies and the remnants of a few thin shelled eggs in the nestbox.

 

I'd love to get a cube so I can have more girlies and hopefully some eggs but much as DH loves our girls he's now saying that he doesn't think he'd replace them as the eggs we've had must work out to be the most expensive eggs in history, excluding Faberge obviously :lol:

 

I love my girls regardless as they are so amusing but it would be nice to have some eggs if only to stop DH moaning about them!

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Three days ago OH was banging and hammering on a new run roof. From that day onwards I've had 1 egg a day . . must have upset them somehow?? Or perhaps it's the short days? All wormed and topped up with poultry spice and nice fresh veg.

 

Oh how I enjoyed the egg glut in the summer!!!!

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We cleaned the girls out on Saturday and did some concreting repairs in the run. There were a lot of fireworks Saturday night and so on Sunday and Monday I only had one egg. I've only been getting 2 out of 3 girls anyway though as one is moulting.

 

I think it can knock them out of kilter. Hopefully normal service will return soon. :D

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We are in lean egg times here too, & its a real pain.

 

I have 8 big layers,5 of whom are hybrids so should lay every day..

 

Daisy is over 3, so she is off the hook

Sweet Pea, a White Star is just over a year, & hasn't laid since the start of the summer

Weed, a Columbine is fairly regular still,same age as Sweet Pea

Dandelion hasn't laid for a couple of months,same age os Sweet Pea & Weed

Bracken is about 2 1/2 & has stopped laying recently.

 

I have wormed them,Eprinexed them,cut down on treats,they have Marriages Mash so its good quality....I am at my wits end with them all!

 

Can't see any sin of red mite, & in a covered run where they are housed permenatly,that shouldn't be an issue anyhow.

They all seem happy,alert & healthy in every other way :roll:

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Cinnamon have you thought about changing the feed brand it could be that they don't like it

I'm on my 3rd brand since I've had mine first I changed because i was getting a lot of softies and doubles of big red and I'd tried everything else so I swapped fed the 2nd one was slightly cheaper but I seem to get though it a lot quicker I've allowed for the fact I've now got 5 becks eating it and there's more dust in the bag so I've changed to garvo I'll give it a go for 2 or 3 bags

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I've had 8 eggs so far this month from my 3 girls, I've been trying to work out what changed around April when the egg production rapidly tailed off, and I can think of 2 things the first was we took the run extension off as they'd done so much damage to the grass over winter we didn't have any complete areas of grass large enough for the Eglu with the extension on :( and the other was that I got the Omlet netting & restricted their access to the garden to allow the reseeded grass to grow & recover.

 

So now when they freerange they have access to all areas except the patio, that's because Lulu has taken a dislike to our adopted 18 yr old cat and chases her through the garden & house :shock:

 

We've moved the Eglu onto the patio near the shed for the winter & I'm considering extending the patio so that we can put the run extension back on, DH thinks I'm clutching at straws and should face up to the fact that our girls are past it :roll:

 

Mimi and Lulu are moulting at the moment so the eggs are from Yum Yum, so I'm hoping that once the moults are over the changes will make a difference :pray:

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Peggy has been very consistent with hardly a break, but not laid a thing now for two weeks. She seems quite well and all the usual avenues have been covered.

 

Now I think of it, two weeks ago we had explosions all over the neighbourhood and at that time we moved the run down the garden. The only other big break Peggy had was when she came back from the Chicken B+B. So maybe it is a combination of shock and change of routine...?

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Could be sulking! Bigger portion of mealworms to bribe her with then? Or maybe she feels like a rest - ours stopped 2 weeks before Christmas last year and resumed in the new year - by that time our buff started laying for the first time, so it was nicely staggered and I didn't need to get any extra's in. Luckily one of our babies has started, and is using the nestbox (ahhh, how did she know what it was for?) - we have 2 little ones, and Piggy Sioux has now provided us with half a dozen so far - didn't need to buy any this week! :dance:

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We've not had eggs here for about a month and a half. First Spice went on moult in July...she got confused by the weather, then she came back into lay, then Molly and Muddles thought they'd moult, so only Starlet was laying, but she is 4 and a half and doesn't lay very often any more. Then Muddles came back into lay again, then stopped to finish her moult.

 

So we haven't had eggs from Spice since early September, from Starlet, the beginning of october, Molly stopped Mid July and Muddles stopped the end of September. All this means no more eggs until February, as I'm not allowed any more hens!

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