hen laying question

[grannycowgirl]

I am a chicken newbie and loving it. I have two movable pens, one with three young hens, another with three hens and a rooster. Each pen is 6ft. by 8ft.
My three grown hens were laying regularly, but last few weeks not often enough. We love the eggs. Pens are moved often, they get corn and oyster shell. Could the terrible heat here in the South be a factor?
Thanks ya'll.

[Ferronsgranny]

The heat can cause them not to lay. I make sure mine have plenty of cool water to drink. I give them layer pellets and some corn. They also have a water mister that goes on during the hottest part of the day to help cool them off. I usually get 6-8 eggs a day from 9 hens.

[grannycowgirl]

A mister would be great. I will get the layer pellets. What breed do you have? I need to research laying breeds. My older chickens my neigbors gave me. And my young ones were so much fun, they came from my daughter's classroom incubator.

[Ferronsgranny]

I have 4 Americanas(green-blue eggs), 1 dominic(sp)(brown eggs), 1 maran(Chocolate eggs), 2 banties(small brown eggs), and 1 Black Australorp(dark brown egg).

Need anymore Cockerels? I have 6 I need to get rid of. 2 Americanas, 1 Rhode Island Red, 2 Buff rocks (or Orphingtons..I can't tell) and 1 Barred Rock.

[grannycowgirl]

Wow, I'll have to check out those breeds.
I think I had better wait to get anymore, even though I have a tendency to jump right on in.
Thanks for your help.

[farmergal]

I'd love to see pics of your birds and setup.

Could be the heat. Are your birds going through a molt?

[grannycowgirl]

Raining here today, but I will get pics soon. Yes, they are molting. One pen is a 6 x 8 chain link pen with a tarp covering about 2/3 of pen. The other I built with wood runners, heavy wire, and chicken wire, with one corner covered with tarp. They have roosts, older hens have wooden nest box.
I move these every couple of days, in an area which I hope to garden someday. Also throw in hay (cleaning out my hay shed), which they love to scratch in.
I need any advice, thanks all.

[Sunlei]

My hens seem bothered by the heat and I have less eggs. 23 hens I get only about 11-12 eggs a day. I hope they improve laying, its been over temp-90 many days and the eggs are slow for me

During the day the chickens seem to spend majority of the time under the shrubs in the cool shade. what a fine chicken life, just wish there were more eggs

[kytrailrider]

If they are molting that is probably your answer. They slow down or quit laying until they are done. Also some chickens are seasonal in their laying.

[crittermom]

Egg production is down at our house too---very hot and humid here. Be aware that chickens will live long past their laying years. We keep them as pets whether they lay or not, but some people cull and replace with new babies. I found a really cool site that sells babies....but, they also give pictures and information about the certain breeds. I really enjoyed their website. www.idealpoultry.com

[grannycowgirl]

Thanks for that link, crittermom.

[Sunlei]

Hey thank you for that Link Crittermom. That place is closer to me and I need some more chickens, There are some beauties at Ideal.The hens I have now are just hit 5 months old so I hope they give me some more eggs soon. They don't seem to like this hot Texas summer.

[CountryMama]

I'd have to agree with kytrailrider that moulting is most likely the culprit, although the hot weather doesn't help any. It sounds like your doing a good job keeping them comfy though! My babies just started to lay last week and I've already gotten more eggs out of them than my older hens have laid all year. So far it's just the Aracuna's that are laying as far as I can tell bcz the eggs I've gotten are a really neat blue/green color and all the rest of the chickens are brown egg layers.
Good luck with your ladies and let us know how it goes!!

[grannycowgirl]

Here are my movable pens. Thanks for all the advice. I'm open for anymore, still researching breeds and different topics.

[CountryMama]

Oooohhhh those look nice! I'm not even going to try and describe what I built to move mine around
Any luck finding any more info on why they may not be laying? You might also try www.backyardchicken.com and look on their forum. It's got all sorts of information on chickens and most of the members are very helpful.

[ILoveMyPaint]

mine havent been laying since they all have hatched a brood this year so i figure thats there excuse, but im sure its the heat.

[grannycowgirl]

Thanks CountryMama, I was lucky to already have the chain link pen. The other one I had most of the materials from other projects. I recycle wood to use around my little farm and also to make benches and things. That is a great website, going to be very helpful.

Paint, I haven't hatched any chicks yet, maybe next year.