Chicken problem?

[beewench]

I have 9 one-year old hens and one rooster. My average is about 8 eggs a day. In the month of February I got a total of 247 eggs…About a month ago I added eleven 10 week old chickens to the coop. All are getting along fine, they have plenty of food and water and free range from 2 in the afternoon until about 7 at night (no change there). Temps have been in the 90’s with cooler evenings in the 50’s and 60’s.
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My indoor coop is about 12ftX6ft and the have access to a 8ftx8ft outdoor run at all times.
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As of about 2 weeks ago my eggs starting dropping drastically, first we were down to 5 or 6 a day and yesterday there were 2 total! And one of them was on the floor of the coop. Additionally, a couple that we have collected have had little holes in the top of them.
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Does this sound like I have a chicken eating eggs? Are they too crowded? There are some hens that have tufts of feathers missing but Im 99% certain its from my rooster (they have been there for a little while) Should I separate him from them? There is no way for a bird to get into the coop, and I haven’t seen any snakes around. Im not even sure if the snakes around here eat eggs… I can’t see any yolk on any of the other chickens faces…and there are no shells in the coop or outside at all.
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-As of today we are going to start collecting every two hours. I am picking up some golf balls to leave in the nests and tomorrow Im going to leave an egg on the floor of the coop and watch it for a while to see if anybody messes with it. -Anything else I can do?
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-=Sarah
www.beewench.blogspot.com

[uncle Will in In.]

You are right on top of things. It may be time for their annual molt.

[Mountainview42]

Not the molt, that comes much later in the year.
I had the same problem here about 6 weeks ago.
Bluejays...
Little blue devils would sneak in and poke small holes in eggs and suck out a meal...then leave.
Now my chickens "Never" instigate egg eating... a whole egg is verbotton...
BUT!!!
An egg that is defective, or already partially eaten... well now, that is fair game, so everybody dig in and eat the rest of it, shell and all.
And 2 hours (or whenever) later when Mr blue devil gets hungry and comes a poking along again for another free meal... the whole process begins all over again.
And as one Blue jay figures this out, surely one or more of his pals follows him in and "Learns" the trick, and pretty soon... no eggs left at the end of the day.

It took me about a week to finally catch 2 of them in the act, and another 3 days to send them to Vahlhalla by way of CCI's fine .22 Mini Mags.

And I try to collect eggs several times a day whenever possible, leaving "Free Meals" out for as little time as possible.
So far no new thieves have picked up where their now deceased pals once thrived.

Also, all blue jays are now designated as fair game for pellet gun practice.
In doing so, even the ones that I miss (not many) learn that this is not a fun place to hang out.

I hope this helps.

Also, I rigged up a small Conibear trap with a "Bait" egg and got one , and leave the trap set all the time to deter any "New" threats.
And no, My chickens can't get mistakenly get caught in the Conibear because of the location.
My chickens are all clipped and can't fly very good.

[Patt]

Originally Posted by Mountainview42

Not the molt, that comes much later in the year.

When they molt depends on when they were hatched not a certain time of year. Mine molt all through the spring, summer and fall.

[Maura]

High temps will slow down laying, so you may not be loosing as many eggs as you think.

[Joshie]

You'll get more/better answers if you post in the poultry forum.

It's not too early to molt. Our girls hatched out last May. They've just come through molt, most of them anyway.

The small holes indicate that you have an egg eater. I would separate the chicks from the adults. We have an oversized horse stall with 11 hens and another oversized horse stall with about 25 chicks. The chicks are getting crowded. They range from about 8 to 12 weeks old. The area they're in is larger than your pen and run and they're all chicks. We definitely need to eat some of the cockerels when they get to be about 6 months old. We also need to put a cockerel and a couple more pullets in with the current adults.

So.... I think that you don't have one problem, you have several.