chickens not laying eggs...

[All4Eggz]

Proper nutrition would be free choice calcium, the current commercial pellets your buying offered day and night, and the scrap bucket. (As long as it contains no bread, rice, or "junk" food. Please avoid those foods, its not good for the flock.)

Ok thank you.

And again, I don't think the diet plays a big role in the egg production drop we just had because we were feeding the same thing over and over all year. So what else could it be?

 

[All4Eggz]

Could artificial light help, in your guys' opinion?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

If they're not getting a good diet, eventually it will catch up with them, especially when they're laying eggs. A few pellets a day, sometimes none at all, is absolutely not enough

 

[Weeg]

I would say the dry feed takes up about 15% of their diet, considering each chicken only gets a few pieces of feed- sometimes none.

Really?! The feed needs to be 90% of the diet. Your hens are suffering from poor nutrition and that is what is causing the drop in egg production. They're likely getting more nutrients from what they get from free ranging, but no nutritional properties are coming from the grains for corn, so hens getting no pellets are getting no nutrition, there for those are the hens who's egg production are dropping.
Please switch to a diet solely consisting of pellets and table scraps from veggies.

 

[Weeg]

Ok thank you.

And again, I don't think the diet plays a big role in the egg production drop we just had because we were feeding the same thing over and over all year. So what else could it be?

Its taking a toll now that their getting older. When they were younger they were able to cope with the toll their diet took on their body. Now their getting older and their bodies NEED that nutrition since laying eggs is even harder for them with age. Thats also probably why you're loosing hens. Expect to loose more and have egg production continue to drop if you don't fit the nutrition needs.
I'm sorry if I sound rude, I really don't want to be, I'm just trying to get my point across about why this is happening. Its not a difficult its either, I'm hoping you can fit the nutrition and get your egg production back up. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Mrs. K]

I respectfully disagree with Weeg. While a starvation diet would cause a decrease in production. These birds might not be getting a perfect diet, they are getting fed, and that creates calories, and the their energy needs are being met. Protien is important, but not the end all. A lack of protein might reduce the total number of eggs a bird produces, and it might shorten her life span, but it won't cause her to go from 5-6 eggs per week to all of a sudden 2-3 eggs per week in my opinion.

After all, we know sugar and high fat is not real good for us, but most of us eat it every day, and more than likely too much of it. Long term health effects yes, but not by Tuesday.

It could be a number of things - check for parasites, I am still thinking a hidden nest or molt. Or light.. although, when you say rain every day... do you really mean rain every day?

How old did you say the birds were?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Several issues stand out to me.
Breeds, nutrition and age are foremost in my mind.
Any change in flock dynamics (loss of birds) causes enough stress to interrupt ovulation.
Along with the nutrition aspect is frequency of feeding. While free ranging (on pristine pasture) is normally a good thing, as are table scraps, it is insufficient for modern chicken egg production. Poultry need a minimum of 38 dietary nutrients in appropriate amounts to be productive. Layer feed contains all those. If Layer feed is 15% of the intake, they are undoubtedly under nourished. A dearth of any of those nutrients can limit ovulation.
Ovulation = egg production.
Your practice of providing a complete feed once a day is insufficient. Chickens are voracious eaters. When their crop is empty, they are hungry. When they are hungry, they will eat something - be that feed, fruits/veggies, bedding, bark, rocks - whatever. I would rather the bulk of that be a nutritionally complete feed.
As nutritious as we know fruits and vegetables are, they don't contribute to nutrition for omnivores. Red Jungle fowl - ancestors of chickens - did not eat grain, nor primarily fruits and veggies. They ate animal protein, seeds and forbs.
By only providing 15% of the diet as a complete feed, they are missing the essential amino acids they need to promote ovulation. I wouldn't doubt that if you started supplementing some animal protein, you would get a boost in production from nearly half of your hens.
Some meat and fish would be a place to start. Don't eliminate those things when you give kitchen scraps.
While the wet weather may have some impact, hens' pineal gland detects light on a basis of day length, not intensity so I wouldn't blame that.
All of your flock are not the most productive breeds. Cochins, games, sebrights and silkies are among the least productive breeds. That doesn't help your situation.
Lakenvelders are OK, Polish are iffy, Jersey Giants, Crevecours, Marans and Wyandottes are a bit better. I'm not personally familiar with Ardenners but they are supposed to be fairly productive. Leghorns are your best producers. Not knowing the mix in your flock, I'd say only half are reliable egg layers. Your sex links should be productive but may fall off depending on age in relation to pure breeds.
Basically, you can choose eye candy or egg production but they don't necessarily go hand in hand.
Add the age factor and you have something else going on. If your less productive breeds are beyond their first egg season, they will fall off quickly.

Keep layer feed available all waking hours. (they won't eat at night) Give some canned mackerel as a protein boost for about a week or two till the more complete nutrition of the feed kicks in. As you replace birds, replace them with productive breeds.
Those would be Leghorns, Anconas, Minorcas, Dominiques, Hamburgs, Rocks, Redcaps, RIRs, other Mediterranean breeds like Penedesenca, Spanish, Andalusian as well as Fayoumis are very productive and you'll see a dramatic change from silkies, sebrights, games and cochins.

 

[All4Eggz]

So first, @ChickenCanoe, @Mrs. K, @Weeg, @JacinLarkwell, and everyone else, thanks for your long and informative responses.

@ChickenCanoe, just wanted to mention that I'm no expert. I estimated 15%, however, it could very likely be much more. Maybe 20-30, and I know that's not enough either. I also wanted to mention that they do get a TON of protein from the food scraps. I mentioned earlier in the thread that the food scraps contain lots of fruits and veggies, but I did not mean that it ONLY contains fruits and veggies. It contains LOTS and lots more. Egg shells, chicken, fish, all kinds of meats, cheeses, bread (not too much though), and much more. Sorry if it was misunderstood, and again, a huge thanks for your long, thoughtful response. Thanks for taking the time and effort to inform me .

@Mrs. K,
when I say it rained everyday, it rained all-day, every-day for the past 2 weeks. No joke. Maybe not ALL day, but close to that.

And the hens are all different ages. The oldest being 3 years or a little more, and the youngest layers are still pullets.

 

[All4Eggz]

and @Weeg, it didn't sound rude at all actually very helpful and informative.
Thank you! I will change their diet.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped.

And to elaborate off @ChickenCanoe 's comment:
I am aware that our breeds are not the best. We weren't really aiming for ONLY production. We have some ornamental breeds, some pet breeds, and this makes chicken keeping more interesting with the benefit of egg-layers and meat producers. I also understand that some are getting quite old... (they might end up on the supper table soon..) And about leghorns being the best, I'm right with you on that one. Every leghorn we have lays an egg every day - maybe missing a couple per month- but they are huge too! I'm pleasantly pleased by them.

And I can't thank you enough for taking time out of your day to help me out! You really don't know how much this means to me!


And thanks everyone, again.!

 

[Finnie]

I have noticed every year that there is a summer decline in egg production. I have always attributed it to the heat. But this year has been the coolest summer (comfortable to me, few days over 90, more than normal days below 80) I’ve seen in a long time. I was expecting that to translate into no slow down of eggs. But, unfortunately, the slow down is occurring anyway.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the summer lull is caused by other things than just heat. After the bonanza of eggs mine produced all spring, it makes sense that their bodies might not be able to keep it up long term.

How my egg production fluctuates is: the most in the spring, drop off during summer heat, rises again as the weather cools, drops off during molt, picks up again after most are done molting, (late fall, which also coincides with my main crop of chicks reaching point of lay) Then gradually drops off again so that by Christmas I’m getting zero, or very few. Those few would be my new layers that might continue all winter, and a few older troopers like Rocks, who will also lay all winter. So the month of January is the slowest month, and then towards the end of January it starts picking up, and by March, I’m inundated again until June.

This is my 7th year with chickens, and I have seen this cycle very consistently.