[tazlilly]

My boy and I are new to this chicken-keeping lark.  We got our 3 girlies at the end of May from a local "free-range egg farm", and they are about a year old.

When they arrived, 2 were laying and 1 wasn't.
 
I put it down to the stress of moving, but then found she has a bad louse infestation, so treated and wormed the lot.  She is now occasionally laying shellless eggs, and appears to have gone into moult.

Then one of the others got a egg stuck.  During the preceeding week, her eggs got bigger and bigger, then one stuck, with a strange stickyout bit on the shell.  It appeared to have broken inside her as the egg filling all ran out onto the patio, which was when we noticed.  She was very uncomfortable, so I seperated her overnight, fearing the worst, but in the morning she had laid the shell.  For the next few days she was abit down, but is now back to normal, except she is not laying .

So now I have 3 hens, and maybe one egg a day.

They are housed in a purpose built house, on a mix of paper, shavings and straw,  and are free-range during the day.  The have layers pellets and corn available all the time, but are fed it as a mash morning and afternoon (they prefer it), and because of the problems they've had,  with natural yoghurt and maybe a bit of cat food.  They also get kitchen scraps (but not many cause the dogs get some), fresh veg, and the odd bit of pasta.

So what am I doing wrong???  How do I get them back on to laying?

[Vember]

Hi Taz

Welcome to the forums

First thing I would do is remove the corn and stop giving any treats

If they are moulting then you may not get any eggs

The one who got egg bound is she eating, drinking and acting normal?
What colour is her comb?
Have they got access to oyster shell?


Sarah

[woodside farm]

Hi,
Unfortunatley at lot of new chickens keepers fall into this trap of taking of ex-free range chickens, these chickens where designed to have a short laying life, and once they are a year old they are no longer any use to the free range (or battery) farmers.
Some can go on laying for upto a year longer, but usually mis-shaped or weak eggs, and most of them seem to be in a bad moult for a very long time.
This is my experience with these poor chickens, but sometimes you might get some good results.

Good Luck
Michelle

[Hensington]

Commercial layers are considered "spent" after one season of laying as they are no longer efficient to feed.
Pure breeds carry the same amount of eggs but lay them over a longer period, so the feed cost per egg is higher...but the bonus is your pet lives and lays longer.

Perhaps switch the girls to a growers ration for a bit to help them rebuild, then switch them back to a layers ration.
ACV in the water really does work a treat, many many benefits.

[wildwitchy]

I always recommend poultry spice, acv (as hensington said) & put some garlic powder/granules in there too. My girls have done really well on it (with the exception of the odd hiccup - like a withheld soft egg). I still get the odd laid soft egg every now and then but it ends up broken in the nest & they're none the worst for it. I had 6 ex batts in sept/oct 08 & still got them all. Some still look very scruffy.

 Out of the 6 batts, I'd say 4 lay on a regular basis. The others are on sabattical. 

My reliable daily layers are my leghorns, buff orpy's & roughly 4 ex batts.

[tazlilly]

Hi Guys
Thanks for the welcome & replies.

Vember, they have a ready- mixed corn/split pea/oyster shell/grit mix that is in a pot for them to eat as and when.  Bella, who got bound, has come back to normal eating, drinking, pottering around, climbed on me yesterday, but goes to bed quite early (8pm last night).  Her comb is red, and still tilts to one side as it did before (not straight up).

They get poultry spice in each meal.  I started feeding the layers pellets mashed with water as they didn't seem to like them "raw"   I have started putting a tiny amount of Cod Liver oil into it, as I read it was good for shell production, but they don't much seem to like that!! (Mind you I don't fancy it either  )

Michelle, they came from a local farm that another lady in the office got hers from (and knows the owner).  There was a choice of 50p "going to slaughters", £3-year olds, or POL.  I chose the middle ones, as (sorry to admit it) I wasn't sure how long they would last if my overly enthusiastic young gun dog started grabbing them.  As it happens all the animals get on really quite well and they've been a good training source!!  Now we have a bit of "experience", I might well go for something else in future (my son fancies Rhode Islands).

Sorry, but now another question.  Having treated the nest box for lice, I found last night that we still them.  If I get that Diathingy earth stuff, how do I use it??  Straight onto the birds?

Sorry to sound so naive.   If it was dogs, I'd be laughing!!

[azubah]

Hi and welcome tazlilly.

I used a mild permethrin based flea powder on my hens when I saw lice. I still check them over from time to time as they have had them twice. The difficult bit is getting it on the hens' skin as they flap about a bit and don't like being held. Some people suggest putting it in their favourite dust bath.

[wildwitchy]

I use frontline flea spray for dogs & cats. It is brilliant. Just give them a quick once over, especially around bum. I last did them very early spring and still fine. Chickens ok. You can get the drops too, to put on back of neck - use kitten dose.