4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[chooksy]

What is happening!?! We have 10 hens, (4 are 18wks, not laying yet), but the other 6 (2 x Araucana, 1 Black Rock, 1 Amber Star, 1 Wellsummer , 1 Leghorn type) are well established, we're hardly getting any eggs! Today we only had 1. We ran out of Allen and Page pellets about 2wks ago, dashed out and got some much cheaper ones (they didn't have A&P) and its since then we've been getting max 2 eggs per day. Does this have a baring on it? We've ordered A&P and just waiting for it to be delivered. I know the bad weather wouldn't have helped.

[chick wiggle]

My girls have been very hit and miss with their laying just recently. I blame it on the weather and also one of them is broody which doesnt help

[Daphne]

Also have they been wormed recently? Last time I changed brands we had illness in the coop. Probably a coincidence but its made me very organised on the food front and the feed merchant had better not run out (I use A&P too)!

[Egluntyne]

Are they free ranging and laying outdoors?

 

I agree that they might need worming.

[Chickendoodle]

I think it could be the change of food. We normally use an organic chicken feed (sorry, can't remember the name) but when we bought 3 more chickens a few weeks ago we thought it would be a good idea to buy a bag of the (much cheaper) food they were eating.

 

As our normal food was quite low we mixed the new bag in after a week or so and lo and behold our older chickens stopped laying. It wasn't the shock of the new girls arriving that caused them to stop laying as we didn't give our old girls any of the new food for a week or so and they were fine up until then. The eggs they did lay on the new diet also had much paler shells and the yolks were paler.

 

Back to original food now and all back to normal. New girls also all laying.

 

I was amazed how quickly the food change affected them - both ways, to not laying then back to laying within a day of switching the food back.

[chooksy]

Hiya,

 

Thanks for the replies. With regards to wormer, last time I used this fine white powder that got everywhere, are there any easier to administer alternatives?

 

The new food has still not arrived Laying has increased a little, but we're still only getting 2-3 per day tops.

 

Thanks again for the replies - very helpful

 

Hx

[Staffordmum]

We have 9 girls and have only 2 or 3 eggs daily

 

We raised 4 from chicks and "adopted" the other 5.

 

The feed we give our original 4 hasn't changed (same supplier). It's hard to tell who is laying and who isn't now they're altogether in the WIR.

 

Yesterday we identified 1 dark brown maran egg, 1 blue leg bar egg (we have 2) and another paler brown egg.

 

They're wormed and dusted regularly, the Cube has been thoroughly cleaned and dusted. They now have a roof on the WIR and so are clean, dry and comfortable.

 

We just can't work it out either ...

 

With rgds administering the Flubenvet (assuming that's the white powder you refer to) if you don't want to add it to the req'd amount of pellets - then you'll need to hand feed each of the girls with half a grape (dipped in Flubenvet).

 

Easy to do if your girls are easily caught and happy to be handled etc.

 

Kind rgds,

 

Pat & Steve