Egg Production

Aside from the giant egg that was laid on Saturday, egg production has been down for the past month.  I used to get 3 eggs a day. Lately I've been collecting one egg every other day.  I wondered why.  Meredith is moulting.  Chickens produce fewer eggs when they moult.  I came home to see a big pile of feathers in the chicken run.  I asked, "Did you girls have a fight?"  I was worried about it until I realized that Meredith is moulting.  But even with one chicken moulting, egg production is way down.  The chickens are 18 months old. Could their fertility be slowing down already?  I was stumped.  This afternoon I got a call from a neighbor. He has chickens too.  He asked if my egg production was down.  I said it was.  His chickens are producing fewer eggs too and he figured out why - min-pin terror.  Two miniature pinchers have been escaping their elderly caregivers and terrorizing the chickens on our street during the day.  One of these min pins terrorized Phyllis last fall and was shaking her by the thigh.  She recovered just fine but she was in shock for many hours.  When I am at work, the chickens are physically protected in their run from these dogs.  But they're not fully protected.  Two barking, aggressive little dogs could be terrorizing my chickens by chasing them up and down the length of the run.  My neighbor said that happened this afternoon.  He was about to come over when the dogs left.  He allows his chickens to free range all day.  He found them on top of the deck - some place they never go. And they would not come down because they were afraid of the dogs.  I said those little dogs have a lot of moxie.  Pound per pound, it's almost an even fight.  "It's a Napoleon thing," he answered.  My chicken owning neighbor is going to talk to the min pin owning neighbors and come up with a solution, possibly including a live-trap.  I'm sure we can come up with something that works for everyone.  It is nice to know why the egg production is down though.