Egg Production Down, Eggs All Over

[JoeInPA]

Hi all,

My 4 chickens have been doing quite well however the past few weeks I've been getting less eggs, and there have been some eggs laid outside of the boxes. From the day they started laying they always laid right in the boxes no problem and I consistently got 3-4 eggs a day. Now I am getting 1-4 eggs a day and I've found several inside the run.

At first I thought maybe they needed more straw in the nest boxes, so I added some. Later that day I came back and the straw was all kicked out of the boxes, all over the place. Ive also noticed they keep going inside the coop for no real reason. They used to only go in the coop to lay eggs or sleep.

None of them appear to be broody. They all appear healthy and strong, they are all eating normally and have plenty of food, water, oyster shell and grit available to them.

What is going on? Are they protesting?

 

[JoeInPA]

Anyone have any idea?

 

[Clearwater Chicken]

are they molting? do they have access to a place where they can hide eggs? i am not sure though

 

[JoeInPA]

They aren't showing any signs of molting. They have nest boxes that they were laying in regularly until a week or two ago.

 

[JoeInPA]

Another egg outside of the boxes this morning. This morning I filled the nest boxes up with some oak shavings I had from a tree I cut up recently. Since they kicked all the straw out, maybe they will find the oak shavings more suitable. I'll report back.

 

[JoeInPA]

Egg production is still down a bit, I got 3 yesterday and 2 today, but all have been inside the nest boxes and the chickens haven't kicked the oak wood shavings out of the boxes. They also seem much more content and calm so I think they are back on the right track. Not sure what happened there but something about that straw they didn't like.

 

[aart]

Who knows what put a bug up their butts....hopefully it wasn't real bugs.
Something might have spooked them.