Do you get they amount of eggs you expect when feeding Nutrena Naturewise?

[Freia]

I'm stumped. I have 12 hens, and I'm getting 2-3 eggs a day. My 1-year-old chicks aren't even laying much, if anything. Last year I got 6-9 eggs a day this time of year.

I thought that maybe it's because they free-range so much that they don't eat enough layer-pellets (pellets and free-range are available to them at all times). But this hasn't changed from last year, so I don't think that's it.

They don't have worms. I' worm every 6 months, and I had a vet do a fecal float test a few weeks ago.

They are happy and healthy. No external parasites, and the plumage looks lovely.

They just don't lay. They all seem to be laying, but just not very often.

The only thing I can think of is that I switched Purina Layena to Nutrena Naturewise last Summer. That's the only change. I like the Nutrena because I'm not a Purina-fan, and it has lots of pro and pre-biotics for their little guts.

Anyone else use the Naturewise and seeing similar results?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I doubt it's the food. If you aren't feeding a lot of scratch or other treats I would suspect some secret nests.

 

[Freia]

Makes sense. I'm going on a 5-acre easter-egg hunt through brush and forest today. Yay!

I've found 2 secret nests in the past month. I thought by removing them I had outsmart them, but maybe they just found better hiding-places.

Must outsmart my chickens...

Edited for afterthought:
Can they have secret nests and still be laying in the nestbox? All of them do lay eggs in the nestbox occassionally. I thought it they had a secret nest they exclusively used that? Or do they spread their eggs around a bit?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

They spread the wealth.
I found an egg in the middle of a muddy run today. Occasionally one flock will start laying in the corner of the coop and then start using the nests again.
I also had a flock that would only lay in the nest and dig their way out of the tractor to run back to the coop to lay.

 

[Freia]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing that info.

I just thought of one more things that's different from last year. I can't get the lovely rye-straw that the girls like so much for their nest-box anymore. I've switched to pine-shavings. I could tell from day 1 that they weren't excited about the pine shavings, but I figured they'd do their job anyway.

Test 1: Put straw back in their nest-box.

Test 2: Easter-egg hunt. Must recruit the kids.

 

[Going Quackers]

A change in nest box material maybe an issue more than the feed, frankly. I know some of my ducks are ticked some of the spots they like to use have been taken over by a broody duck and now her ducklings so they have been laying outside the barn, my horse barn was a funny one this morning, poor horses had no idea what the egg was lol

I doubt chickens would be any different!