Are my chickens broken?

[BGcoop]

I have 12 adult hens about 18 months to two years old. Everyone was laying well throughout the winter, then spring arrived and they SLOWED DOWN! Over winter I was getting about 6-9 eggs per day, then in spring I was getting 3-5 eggs per day. It started to pick back up and I was finally back to about 5-6 eggs per day, and now for the last couple weeks I’m back down to only 3 eggs/day! I did move the babies out into the coop with the big girls and was thinking this may have freaked them out but it’s been a couple weeks already. I do let the big girls free range and have looked for hidden nests and kept them locked in the run for several days in a row and still only about 3 eggs. They seem healthy otherwise( I did have one hen that was looking poorly that I put down and necropsied several weeks ago that had a massive lash egg inside her- do I need to worry the other girls have this too?) no dietary change other than what they may be eating while out foraging. Any suggestions to increase egg production? If it’s stress from the babies, how long should that last?

 

[aart]

Could still be stress.

Curious about how birds that age could lay all winter....were you using supplemental lights?
Did they molt last fall?

 

[BGcoop]

They had a mild molt on the middle of winter, mostly laid ok throughout. I don’t know why they decided to molt then- I felt bad that they were half bald when it was 0 Degrees out. Yes we had Some supplemental lighting- because they adamantly refused to leave the coop into the run when there is snow on the ground. (Coop is like 8x17 feet walk in so plenty of space and they always had the option to go into the run, but not much for lighting)

 

[aart]

Yes we had Some supplemental lighting

Was it only on during daylight hours?
Do you have windows in your coop?
Changing the light they are exposed to can affect their molting and laying patterns.

 

[BGcoop]

The Supplemental lighting has not really changed. If anything they are getting more natural light in the morning. Lights go off at about the same time every night.