My husband and I are new to raising chickens and we are learning a lot. We have 37 leg-horns and their egg production is very sporadic. In one week there was a total of 99 eggs. One day, there was only 7! What could we be doing wrong and is there anything we can do to boost production?

Blessings, Annette

-- Annette Segovia (mamalove2@juno.com), May 03, 2001

Answers

How old are your chickens. Have they just started laying, or are they older hens that maybe getting to be to old? What is the daily temperature been ranging? I have 15 brown leghorns that just started laying last october. They have done real good except for this last winter with the blast of cold air from the north, they got down to where I was finding only four or five eggs per day. Since the weather has warmed up I'm getting an average of 12 per day. Also, what are their ranging condition? Maybe you have to many birds in a small pen, they could be eating the eggs out of pure boredom!

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), May 03, 2001.

Is it possible something is stealing them? Coon, possums, even rats can carry off eggs. Are they really comfortable and happy? Ours get mad at us when we leave for a weekend. They have plenty of food and water, but pay us back with a day of two of almost no eggs.

-- Cora-Vee Caswell (coravee@locl.net), May 08, 2001.

Annette, I like a lot of different colors. Have 5 red hens, 2 black austorlops, 2 buff orphington, 2 barred rocks, and other different colors. I have only one white leghorn that is about 10 months old. She is the only hen that absolutely lays every day. Unless something is wrong, your leghorns should be laying. I don't care much for the little white eggs but the leghorns are, in my opinion, the best layers. Do have a nice quite place for them to lay? Does something like a dog or possum, or something else disturb them Do you know how old they are?? My oldest ones are 2 year old. They lay really good, and lay big brown eggs but I don't plan on keeping the much longer than 2 years. Hope this help and you can start getting lots of eggs. Eagle

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), May 08, 2001.

My chickens only lay when the are free ranging.

About a month ago, it seemed production was way down, but I watched closely in the mornings and it was crows going in and stealing eggs. The crows don't stop by my place anymore.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), May 16, 2001.