Girls on Strike?

[kotwica]

My 6 Rhode Island Red girls have just hit over a year mark and have been wonderful layers. I have gotten 4-6 eggs per day since they started laying, but since last week, it seems that some of them are on strike! One girl went broody on me, and the production went down to only 3 per day. She is done with her broody phase, after several days of being kicked out of the coop, and still, only 3 eggs. Is this normal? Could they be molting already? I haven't seen any feathers AT ALL. They do free range, but only after noon, and they are always finished laying by noon. Is chicken on the dinner table earlier than I planned? Or should I plan a soufflé?

 

[raro]

I don't know about your case, but for me, I've had chickens change what times they lay. Maybe the brooding changed their daily pattern. If so, I'd look around and see if you can find any hidden stash...I once found TWELVE eggs in a corner of the house where my chickens had been free-ranging. It's very frustrating, but they can find the strangest places to lay!
I have also found that sometimes something will spook a hen (predator, weather, who knows?) and they will stop laying for a week or two. When a raccoon got into my henhouse, ALL the hens stopped laying for over a month. I was pretty depressed, but then they started again and I've had no problems since.

 

[kotwica]

I looked around our property, but it's really hard to find where they may be laying.. we have 10 acres. I think I'll leave them in the coop for a couple days and see if it changes the amount of eggs I get.

 

[kotwica]

Update! I think I have an EGG EATER among my girls!!!! What do I do? Today I went to the coop early and found remnants of an egg in the egg box! The yolk was seeping into the bedding and there were fragments of a shell left! Could this be where my eggs have gone? How do i stop this? How do I isolate the egg eating girl?