diet and egg production?

[JOdogface]

I have 8 hens (ISA browns) who started laying the second week of January. Initially I kept them confined to a coop (due to predators), but have recently started letting them out to "free range" when I'm at home to keep an eye on them. When confined, they ate Purina Layena feed and for scratch I gave them wild bird feed, which they love.

For the first few weeks, I was pretty consistently getting one egg per day per hen. Since I've been letting them "free range" their egg production has gone down -- six a day, five -- one day I only got three.

Is this related to their diet? Is commercial layer feed pushing them to produce more eggs than bugs and grass? Or is this a function of their age? It doesn't seem like they should be dropping off production this quickly, since this breed is known for their egg production.

Advice?

 

[sourland]

I'd be looking for a hidden nest.

 

[GC-Raptor]

My hens egg production went down when I started to let them free range at 13 months of age. I let them out to forage 2 hours before sunset daily at that time. So they had already laid for the day.
Foraging is not as nutritious as a complete feed.
But they are very happy. GC