This year is my first time raising chickens. Right now I have 10 RIRs, 8 of them are laying I am assuming, since I am up to 8 eggs per day. We feed Organic Layer Pellets or Crumble (they seem to be more satisfied and gung-ho on the crumble) about 1/2 cup per chicken in the a.m. Free range at least 6 hours (usually more) a day on 1 acre and we give them snacks from the garden in the afternoon. We have a coop with actually 8 nesting boxes in the upper loft. There is usually one egg at 7:30 when we go out to let them out of the loft and feed them. At first, we were finding eggs everywhere in the coop, from supply shelves to the ground floor, even one on the ladder to the loft. They have been laying since 8/2 and at this point, they wait in line throughout the day for their two favorite boxes to lay in. The egg shells are nice and hard, so no problems with rubber eggs. I check on our chickens several times a day, so I collect as I go. One day there was an egg on the ladder and when one of the hens came out of the loft she knocked it on down the ladder and it cracked open. Yes, my chickens went nuts and ate it like they hadn't been fed in weeks and all I could think was "you little cannibals". But I am thankful, it did not carry over into them looking at their eggs as food. I have no Roo, but the girls seem to care about their eggs, rolling them around in the nest and making the nest just so. We have noticed that our chickens have their own little mind and we deal with their behaviors individually. In your case, give them some time, spend more time with them and observe what is going on. Maybe some of your girls are not getting to eat because of pecking order. Good luck.
