Could these weeds be affecting egg production?

I had a huge area overtaken by these weeds. Over the past couple of months I’ve been tossing everything I pull out to the chickens. Over roughly the same period of time, their egg production had been decreasing. At this point I’m getting 0-2 eggs out of 12 chickens! I know the other answer might be predators, and I have a game cam coming to watch for that. I’ve also circled their entire pen multiple times and they’re definitely not laying anywhere other than the nesting boxes.

Juniper Zen wrote:I had a huge area overtaken by these weeds. Over the past couple of months I’ve been tossing everything I pull out to the chickens. Over roughly the same period of time, their egg production had been decreasing. At this point I’m getting 0-2 eggs out of 12 chickens! I know the other answer might be predators, and I have a game cam coming to watch for that. I’ve also circled their entire pen multiple times and they’re definitely not laying anywhere other than the nesting boxes.

I'm not sure how it could.  I'm assuming you feed them pellets or something as well, and are not trying to make them live off those weeds.  If they are getting enough to eat and have enough clean water to drink, I would assume predators.

The plant in your pictures appears to me to be prickly lettuce, aka milk thistle to some (but there is another plant also bearing that name - silybum marianum), or Lactuca Serriola. It's edible and has medicinal values.

http://naturalmedicinalherbs.net/herbs/l/lactuca-serriola=prickly-lettuce.php

I tend to think the prickly lettuce is probably not the cause of the drop in egg laying. Is the weather getting very hot where you are?

Lactuca Serriola, that's it! Good to know it's not poisoning them. They do have free access to layer pellets and water.

It hasn't been hot yet - temps have been fluctuating between 60 and 90 degree highs over the past couple of months. Next week it's hitting 100 for multiple days.

Game cam arrived today, and I set it up to take pictures of the top layer of nesting boxes. It was supposed to take a picture every 10 seconds, but instead it was going off every 14-16 seconds, with random skips of 30 seconds, 1 minute, or even a few minutes. WTF.

Just remembered to come back and give an update on this thread. As soon as I stopped giving the chickens the prickly lettuce weeds, their egg production started to go back up. I am now getting 5-7 eggs a day from 11 hens (not counting one who has been broody).

Meanwhile, the game cam had showed a) only a small number of hens going to the nesting boxes, and b) no sign of predators.

My best guess is that, even if the weeds were not harmful in small quantities, something was building up when they were eating too much. Or the hens were just gorging themselves so much on the weeds that it was unbalancing their diet.

We call that weed Opium Lettuce here in the Similkameen Valley, it can be used as a sedative, quite powerful in larger doses, not sure if it would affect egg production, though it theoretically could, as your chickens would be mildly sedated whenever they eat it.

How are your chickens for mites, both red and scaly, we have a drop in production whenever the red mites start to come around.

Interesting, I didn't notice them being sedated. But they were certainly the issue since egg production returned to normal after I stopped giving the weeds.

They do have mites. From what I've seen, it's a tolerable amount when the chickens are healthy, and get bad when they're sick/stressed. I see it as just a part of farm life, as handling the hens regularly to remove mites would be super upsetting for them.

Well this has been an interesting thread to find, I have found the same issue with drop in egg production from my red shavers giving milk thistle in large quantity over period of time, such an easy weed to find where I live.  I shall cease and desist immediately ! Great that you posted and with a pic of the thistle.  BTW I dont think you would notice sedation per se, but it could upset egg production hormones or something like that.  I actually started to wonder about this issue as I heard lettuce itself should be avoided for chooks, and the milky stuff in all those plants, and poppies, has some level of opiate or anther. Yes even your lettuce.  Thats why salad eaters always look so happy  Lindon, Christchurch NZ

Welcome to Permies, Lin Rogers!
I hope your chickens start laying better as the weed exits their systems.

Since I let mine free range over a decent sized yard, They have a chance to avoid things that might cause them upset, though they do have distinct and individual preferences for different foods and plants.
I'll have to go take a wander and see if there are any questionable plants that have moved in over the course of the summer.