Not laying/stolen...advice?

[mcg30_40]

Ok, I am bad about not collecting my eggs on a daily basis. I noticed that I'm only collecting a couple of eggs after about 3 days of not collecting. I have 13 hens so I should be getting much more. Soooo, I set a live trap figuring it was a fox stealing eggs and started gathering eggs a couple times a day to take away his meals. Well I'm only getting about 3 eggs a day. I still think something is stealing some if I don't gather on a regular basis but I also think they aren't laying as well as they should be. My hens are from last years hatching to a couple of years old and have been laying great. I've started giving them more feed and some fresh grass. I also changed out the bedding in the laying boxes. Any other suggestions?

P.S. Nothing caught in trap except an occassional chicken during the day. Found a dead hen in the coop a couple of days ago, no apparent reason for death.

 

[StupidBird]

snakes. pretty shiny black rat snakes. we had two (4 and 5.5 feet) that got rehomed to a nice horse barn.

 

[lleighmay]

One or some of your hens could also be eating eggs. I recently had this problem and I know it was them as I witnessed them doing it. An old farmer friend of mine suggested it might be due to a lack of protein; at his advice I've started giving them 3-4 handfuls of dry cat food (cheap is fine) per day and they seem to have stopped. I just toss the cat food around the run and they take what they want/need. Good luck in determining what's up with your egg problem