No eggs in months - do I need to worry?

[CheriK]

We have a small, mixed-breed backyard flock of 1 easter egger (was sold as ameraucana, but. . .), 2 buff orpingtons, and 1 Rhode Island red. All were hatched late Feb/early March last year. Our Rhode Island started laying in mid-July, all the others had joined her by mid-August. We were consistently getting 3-4 eggs per day until mid-November, when our EE abruptly stopped laying; she had before that been the most consistent & almost daily layer. By the end of November no one was laying. All went through molts, not at the same time, and all except one Orpington who was the last to molt are now fully feathered & have been for weeks. But NO eggs. Not a one since November. We live in Northern California, it doesn't get that cold, everyone else I know (and I've been seeking out people to ask) have been getting at least a random egg here or there, and most folks are now back into daily eggs as the weather has been consistently warm for a couple weeks. My girls are free range in our 500+ sq ft yard, in the coop at night (and DH seriously overengineered the coop, so we could have about 10 hens in there), get calcium, on a good-quality layer pellet, lots of veggie scraps, we cleaned the coop thoroughly last month (deep litter w/ pelleted bedding & it never has been smelly or terribly dirty). Poops look normal, everyone is eating well, skin & feathers look healthy beyond molt oddness. . .

Any ideas? Something I'm missing with husbandry? They're not hiding eggs (yard is small, I've checked all corners & nooks often), I can't believe we have critters stealing eggs so well that they're laying without us seeing anything. . . Did I just get "lucky" and end up with 4 hens who take the whole winter off? I'm getting really depressed hearing about my friends' overabundance of eggs & hearing our neighbors' hens do the egg cackle every day! Comments & ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Cheri

 

[jeff spahn]

I am in the same boat. All but one of my buffs have stopped laying. Now it has been a week since an egg. What the heck? The a two years old.

 

[bucky52]

i'am getting a egg or two aday.out of eight hens.

 

[CheriK]

Just updating in case others are searching threads for similar situations. . . We started getting eggs from our two best layers in mid-February(19th - should have waited a few days to post ;-), the two Orpingtons had both started laying by mid-March. Guess I'm just lucky to have 4 chickens who took the whole winter off. Thank goodness we're getting enough production now to have eggs to dye for Easter!

Cheri