Kitchen Garden Forum

I am ready to bow down to all of you out there in the ether if you can send some of your vast knowledge in my direction
We have 11 hens (mixed race) and 1 little black banty - oh and then there's Lenin as well!
Until the beginning of last week we were getting a regular 'lay' of around 10 - 12 eggs a day. This week the numbers have dropped to around 4-6 per day. Same routine, same food, same water, no mite present, no rats at the moment (or none taking the bait from the traps). They are all healthy yet they don't seem to want to lay eggs.
All except the banty are this years rescued hens - well, not really rescued, more like re-homed - from the local free-range farm, and we have had them since February. They didn't lay anything for the first week, but since then they haven't stopped. Is this normal? I mean do they lay for a while and then have a rest, or is there another reason that I'm missing
Many thanks in advance, oh Great and Mighty Founts of Knowledge

Hello Tea-shot
My hens have the bottom of the garden to themselves and occasionally seem to go off lay. We then have to organise a thorough search of their patch because it means they have taken it into their heads to lay somewhere different. Eventually we find a large clutch of eggs of unknown ages in some obscure patch!
If your hens are confined to a run and some have given up doing what hens are supposed to do, at this time of year it could be that they are going broody.

John

Hi Tea-shot

My girl's sitting on eggs and as John says, it's that time of year. Even without something to sit on they'll go through a phantom "pregnancy" and sit on nothing for weeks.

So if they are broody, do I leave the eggs that are being laid in the hope that some will hatch

Unless you have a boy-hen in your flock whose been doing the business then, I'm afraid, Tea-shot, your eggs will be infertile. A broody hen will sit tight on any eggs as she can't tell if they are fertile or not.
If you have a broody hen that you think will make a good mother then you'll need to get some fertile eggs from somewhere. Best to get this type of egg locally and fetch them yourself. This way you can see if you like where they have come from and get the eggs home safely. Though there are places that do send out fertile eggs in the post, some can be a bit dodgy.
It's a very rewarding and enriching experience raising your own chicks with a broody especially if you have young children. Its also very easy as the mother hen does all the hard work. It takes only takes about 21 days.

John

You'll know if they are broody - if they stay in the nestbox all day, regardless of whether there are any eggs in there - and they object if you try to move them. (they will fluff their feathers up and possibly try to peck you or they'll definitely make it obvious that they want to be alone!). That's broody behaviour.

If you have a broody, then the usual thing is to put her on her own, somewhere comfy and dark and give her fertile eggs to incubate. She will come off the eggs once a day and do a huge smelly dropping, eat as much as she can stuff in her beak as fast as possible, have a drink of water and shoot back onto the eggs. 21 days later you will probably have live chicks - and away you go.

Thanks again everyone. Yes, John, we do have a boy-hen - a great white cockerel who took over from the cornflakes cockerel at the end of last year - and he likes to look after his ladies - in all ways
We did have a broody banty earlier in the year but it was only the end of January and far too cold so we stopped her sitting. Wonder if she's in a sulk now
Well, we are just going to have to wait and see for this year, although Alan (next door plot) says he will lend us one of his sitters to get some hatched.