egg numbers - a drastic drop ?

Hello folks,

We have 3 rescued freerangers (18 months old). They are warrens and so far have laid the following:

Week 1 - 13 eggs
Week 2 - 13 eggs
Week 3 - 12 eggs

We have had at least 1 egg a day, often 2 or 3. So quite a healthy amount there....

However 5 days into week 4 and we have had 1 egg (that was on monday). We can put it down to cold weather (in derbyshire by the way) starting to set in.......but this seems like they have gone on strike rather than slowly lowering production for winter ?

No signs of mites, not too much pecking witnessed, poos are generally black and white, not runny. Not been moved recently, no signs of foxes, all seem healthy, fluffy and eating well.

The only thing we noticed is when we switched to organic layers pellets, from non-organic, they seem to prefer the non-organic. We are trying not to give too many treats, corn etc so that they eat the pellets (take away the choice) they eat them eventually, but very slow on the uptake.

So we presume it's the weather - but does the drop in egg production set in this quick ? And is it a complete shutdown for a while ?

Any thoughts most appreciated :-)

It was a straight swap as we ran out of the previous pellets before getting the new stuff.

Before they came to us they were with an animal rescue place for a couple of months, and they fed them the organic type...so it's a switch back really.

Thanks for your thoughts Zak.

I was wondering if they were moulting. They won't lay for a while if they are.

Thanks for the responses so far.....

It doesn't look like they are moulting, just the occasional feather around in the run. One of them looked like she had been when she arrived, but they are all looking fluffy right now.

Maybe they are about to start moulting....

Hi one of my chickens has laid 2 90gm eggs this week we had them today and they were both double yolkers she has laid doubles before but they weren't this big.
Diane

I even had a dream last night that my girls had started laying again. It was a big white one so I thought it must be the Appleyard. Was quite excited when I went down to check this morning.  And Nothing   :cry:

Think I'm starting to obsess a little but its TWO months now!

Our 10 girls were giving us 8 or 9 eggs a day up to last week then we had rain so they went on strike.  We got back to 5 eggs one day, then we got the new hens- so they went on strike again! Thursday we had 1 egg, Friday 6 and today 5  so a bit better.  Just cos we had managed to get folk to start buying the eggs instead of me giving them away!!  Neighbours cousin wants 2 dozen for tomorrow (we have 1 dozen) and a neighbour wants a dozen too, he will have to wait till Tuesday or Wednesday for his eggs!  That is if they carry on laying :roll:
Pamela