Do Bantams stop laying eggs due to "old" age?

[MNL]

I have 3 four year old bantams and I can't figure out if they are old or somethings going on with them. I changed their diet a few months ago because Purina changed their Free Range Soldier Larvae recipe and I can no longer get their original formula. Purinas new recipe is higher protein and I heard that high protein was only good for meat birds, which mine are not...they are my pets!! eggs just a bonus. This winter and now going into summer, they are just off. They seem healthy and act normal, but they collectively go without laying for a week at a time. I have had several soft shelled eggs too. I keep oyster shell in a separate cup and the new food I feed them is Scratch & Peck organic pellets made with soldier fly larvae. Any advice will help, thank you!!

 

[Tonyroo]

Older birds will stop laying egg in there life. And based on there conditional change, they should stay on high protein. Since the process of creating a shell is no longer active.

High protein is used to give chickens the best health for muscle formation, maintaining the nervous system and organ functions.

Layer feed is depriving your bird's health to maximize there egg production.

Looking at the feed label should clue you in on it's use.

 

[Sussex19]

You actually want higher protein, layer feed only has the bare minimum for them.
18% to 20% is a good amount, partially if they seem off they will want it on the higher side.

 

[nuthatched]

More protein is actually better, your birds aren't going to gain weight like meat birds because they aren't meat birds.
Birds need protein for eggs, tissue, feathers, hormones. 16% layer is the bottom line of protein they need, some birds need more.
The soldier fly feeds are mostly hype, they're actually (usually) less the 10% fly larva.

 

[Cluckwork Orange]

...meat larvae...

 

[Shadrach]

4 years old is nothing like old age for a bantam with sound provenance. A bantam with good genes should live to ten or twelve years old. Most of the bantams I've cared for laid fewer eggs as they aged but still laid right up to nine or ten years old.
I very much doubt it's the feed. Stress, moulting or just having some time off are often the reasons.
If they laid eggs eating the feed they had before at whatever nutritional values, then they should still lay eggs with a similar feed now.