No more eggs!

[Crashcoop]

HI-
I have 8 girls- 5 are almost a year and have been laying since Christmas- and 3 were hand-me-downs but good layers about 3 years old. I average 6/7 eggs a day. 5 days ago- they all stopped. I have not seen any since. Nobody is molting that I can see.
We are in Alaska and the days are warmer and longer now- so I though the coop might be too hot- so I have cleaned it out, put in fresh hay, opened vents and the door- nothing. They don't come out of the door yet- as there is much snow on the ground- but they do lay in the sunshine inside.
I have checked all their vents- fine. They have food and water. They have gone through a few transitions and traumas- including a move and a predator attack in our new home -and yet their egg laying never changed much to my surprise. As far as I can tell- the past 2 weeks have been nothing but boring.

Do I have an egg eater?? If so- how do I know and how do I check to see who it is? Any other thoughts?

 

[Yay Chicks!]

That's interesting. I have four year olds that surprising started laying in January, while we were gone on vacation, with no extra light, and then stopped again until the days got longer. They had never done that before. Sometimes I think that there is not always an explanation!

I will say that usually there is some sort of evidence if there is egg eating. Telltale yolk on a beak or some egg residue in the nesting boxes...

Or, is it possible they could have had a fright that you are not aware of?

Hopefully, it will all straighten out.

And,

 

[Crashcoop]

Thanks for your help- I just find it strange they all stopped on the same day.

 

[subhanalah]

How warm is it where you live? Could it be a snake?

Are there any remnants of egg shells, sticky bedding, anything?

Have you done an egg hunt in their yard?

 

[Crashcoop]

No snakes in Alaska! It is not really warm- just by our standards- the days warm up to about 35-40- with the sun shining in the coop it may be up to 50 but after the winter it feels good to us all. I keep looking but cannot find any broken shell or sticky mess- I've check their beaks - no evidence.

I switched their food to pellets in the beginning of March- could it take a couple weeks for the old to get out of their system and the new to then not have enough vitamins for egg laying? The new food came with the coop- and he said- it was the same as I was using but just in pellet form- but he had it in 5 gallon buckets so I don't have the label. Could the food switch be the problem?

 

[subhanalah]

It could. Chickens don't like change.

I would think if you had an egg eater, you would find at least trace evidence of the smorgasbord.