2yo Chickens still not laying after winter

[momma2chickies]

Located in Central Maryland.

I have 5 chickens, all 2 years old. (2 Easter Eggers, 1 Buff Brahma, 1 Speckled Sussex, 1 Welsumer)

This winter of course they stopped laying. I'd say beginning of April I started getting eggs again, 4 or 5 per day. That lasted about a week and now I'm only getting 1, maybe 2! They show no signs of illness or mites. Nothing else has changed. I've hunted throughout my yard and cannot find anywhere else they're laying, and there's been a few days that they had to stay in their run until later in the evening (after 5 PM) and I still only got 1 egg. They've been eating Purina Layena Crumbles since they started laying. Coop is freshly cleaned out. I'm not sure what else could be the problem. Should I try changing their feed? Anything else I'm missing? Thank you!

 

[azygous]

They should be at peak production now. You have a mystery. What I would do is to confine them to the coop and nest boxes for at least three days and see how many eggs you get.

The most obvious reason for such young hens not producing eggs is that they're laying them in secret spots that you can't find.

If confinement doesn't produce eggs, then you will need to look at diet and stress factors (noise, wild animal or loose dogs scaring them, etc)

 

[momma2chickies]

They should be at peak production now. You have a mystery. What I would do is to confine them to the coop and nest boxes for at least three days and see how many eggs you get.

The most obvious reason for such young hens not producing eggs is that they're laying them in secret spots that you can't find.

If confinement doesn't produce eggs, then you will need to look at diet and stress factors (noise, wild animal or loose dogs scaring them, etc)

Thanks for your response, I guess I'll leave them in for a few days! I just feel guilty doing that - I love to let them free range the yard. Not huge, our total property is only ⅓ acre but house/front yard is probably half of that. We do have some thicker bushes around 2 sides but I've gotten into any areas they typically tend to hang out and cannot find eggs anywhere! I will leave them in their coop/run for a few days and see if that changes anything.