No Eggs for about a week now - Nashville TN

[Coach P]

Got my 6 ISA Brown pullets about a month ago. They had all supposedly been laying for about 3 months when I got them.
I got one egg the 3rd day after getting them. Since then, I have gotten 1 or 2 eggs a day, and on one occasion I got 3 eggs.

For about a week, I've gotten no eggs.

Some possible pertinent info:

The temp did turn hotter about the same time they stopped laying, (90+ degrees) and their tractor/coop/nest, which they have constant access to, is sitting in the sun. It's on wheels and I move it a few feet every 2 to 3 days.
Within the last 2 weeks I cleaned the coop out with a garden hose, and replaced all the nesting straw with pine shavings.
The ladies free range over about 2 acres from 7am till dark every day. (plus they go in my neighbor's cow pasture.)
They spend a lot of time in a grove of trees/overgrown shrubbery, pecking and scratching.
I feed them about 1 cup of pellet food each night when they go inside the coop.
Two days ago, I started adding about a quarter cup of oyster shells to their food.
They have a constant supply of water too.

Is is just too hot to go in and lay, with the tractor in the sun?

(When I was getting eggs, it was late morning/early afternoon) (Would I be doing good or harm, if I make another place for them to nest other than inside the hot tractor? maybe a box in the shade "at the edge of" the trees?)

Are they possibly laying in the shaded shrubby tree line where they scratch and peck?

Am I not feeding them enough?

They don't act stressed. (maybe Lady Bug, since we have to treat her leg mites everyday, but she enjoys the treat she gets afterward.)

thanks
Coach P.

 

[lightchick]

Heat often affects laying badly. I'd start putting ice in their water and try to keep them as cool as possible.

 

[Coach P]

It's now going on 2 weeks without an egg!! We've made sure they aren't laying in the brushy treeline where they like to scratch for bugs. We've also made sure the tractor coop is in the shade for the most part of the day. I've added oyster shell to their feed. No stress that I know of. They always have water.

Is it just too hot? (90 degrees in upper middle TN)

Am I not feeding them enough? (about 1 cup for 6 hens every night, but they forage over 2 acres all day) They always act like they are starving and literally run to me when they see me coming with the food.

 

[Quickster]

I would go on a more extensive egg hunt! Maybe they are just hiding them really well? I hope that is the case and they haven't really stopped.

 

[Coach P]

We know - Definitely - there are no eggs in the treeline. However..... they go through the fence and into the cow pasture.

Would hens lay out in the open? in a cow pasture? I haven't been out there, only because from what I've read, they want a dark tight spot to lay in.


How much should you fee free range chicken that roam from 7am till dark?

 

[Quickster]

I don't know about them laying in the cowpasture. Maybe if there's a little ditch and grown-up grass? I was just hoping you'd find a big beautiful pile of eggs. When I was a kid we had chickens and we couldn't find it their eggs for quite a while. When someone finally did find them, there was a huge pile! it was awesome!! My memory may be exaggerating the size of the pile, since I was very little but I will never forget it.