Homestead mailing list

[Lisa Kae Van Meter Perry <lisakvperry AT gmail.com>]

On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 9:15 PM, <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:

>
> This time of year chickens will go through a molt.  Usually it is late June
> but it can be as late as mid August.  Most of the time you will see them
> shedding lots of feathers but sometimes not so many and not so noticeable.
>
> During the molt egg production will go down or cease altogether for several
> days.
>
> If that is the case, egg production will pick back up post-molt.  We were
> getting thirty eggs a day, then during the molt it suddenly went down to 5
> then none for a few days.  Now it's thirty again.


James and Rob,

It had been going on 4 years since we last kept chickens. I can't believe I
forgot about the molt period. I bet that's what's going on.  We haven't
found any shells, have scoured the hen 'yard' for any other nests or signs
of egg shells and have found nothing. Even my son said "Mom, a big snake
can't eat that many eggs day after day...." The hen house is fairly secure
currently as the last go-round with poultry we lost a bird to a predator and
we took care of that hole then.

Thanks. My brain has been very preoccupied with other things this summer to
remember that chickens molt. Will quit worrying about the chickens and use
that brain space on other, more important, things. :) Thanks for your
replies.

Lisa