NO eggs!! :(

[Saladana]

Hi there, I have six chickens I bought last year as pullets and they have been great they have laid everyday since i got them. I then introduced another ten chickens fairly easily and the first day they laid 14 out of 16 chickens. everyday since then I have had severly lower numbers, some days ill get eight and then some days ill get three.

My originaly six chickens began to lose their feathers a few months ago before I got the new chickens, they continued to lay, they are just now getting some of their new feathers. For the last week I have gotten not one egg, what would be the reason for this??
Perhaps they are all molting? The new 10 look pretty good, I was hoping they had already gone through their molt before I got them, but I think they may be just starting to molt now? I have been putting apple cider vinigear in the water but doesn't seem to be helping.

One other probelm, back when they were laying a friend who ate some mentioned that she got a few eggs in the dozen that looked "murky" no deffined yolk, she didn't eat them. Could this be a sick chicken? Or perhaps to much fruit? (I feed them all the scraps, right now pears are in season and they have been getting lots!) I also just recently changed their feed from 16 to 18 percent protein, could this be affecting egg production?
Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Den in Penn]

Do you light the coop? Between the molt and the shortening of day light, would be the main reasons for them to slow down. Raising the protein in the feed should not have hurt the amount of eggs you would get.

 

[Happy Chooks]

They sound like they are molting. Increasing the protein will help them grow their feathers in faster. Generally, they don't lay while they are molting - all their energy goes into regrowing the feathers.

 

[Tambo26]

Oh my word! My three girls haven't laid a single egg in 9 days. It looks as though there has been a feather pillow fight in their coop/run areas. Poor girls. I'm in Maine and it's starting to get chilly! I hope for you and for me that it is just the molt causing the lack of egg production. I HATE buying eggs! HATE IT!