Poor egg laying - ongoing and need reassurance

Hi folks

I have 4 golden comets, who free range during the day, have layer feed, grit, oyster shell and treats. They appear happy, alert and are quite active. They are Aug 2010 hatches. When I first got them in March, they were laying gangbusters! Beautiful, hard shelled brown eggs, almost 1 per hen every day. Then about the time our terrible thunderstorms set in (the East Coast has been hammered, altho not as bad as our friends in the South) and it got HOT, production reduced and I would occasionally get a no-shell egg. Normal behavior as I understand it, and these girls's main job is to eat my bugs, stink bugs especially. The eggs and the entertainment are a delightful bonus.

Since then, however, it seems to be getting worse, rather than better. I get maybe 5-6 eggs total per week now - sometimes one in the nest, sometimes I will get 4 eggs in one day and that will be it for the week. I read up on BYC as to all possible causes, I have been watching them, to make sure they are not laying somewhere in the "wild", making sure they have plenty of chow, and watching their behavior. My overall thought is this is simply their pattern, and not to worry (excessively).

However, when I let them out this morning (getting bowled over as they charged the door to get out into this magnificently beautiful day in Maryland!!!), I noticed in their poop line from the perch one disintegrated shell-less egg (very thin almost non-existent membrane), and what appear to be two other spots that look like yolk and egg whites simply passed while they were roosting. No evidence of shells at all, anywhere, so certain these were not "eaten" eggs.

OK - so now I need reassurance from BYC experts that this is still typical unpredictable egg laying behavior for my golden comets, and that there is no other "underlaying" issue. I am new to chickens, but not new to herd management of other species. I am going to take a look for parasites with fecals. Is there anything else I should be doing? Looking for? Be concerned about? I want to add a couple more hens of different breeds as well, but do not want to do that before I am confident that my girls are OK. I do want eggs, though, so if this is going to be the standard for these girls, I definitely want to add 2-4 more that will lay

Thanks
Chris

 

I actually followed the little monsters for about two hours Saturday morning, as stealthily as I could. No joy! However, will do that again this weekend if things do not improve with the lovely change in weather. I may also lock them back up for a couple of days in their run/coop just to see what is really going on - hiding vs poor eggs/no eggs.

My girls originally seemed to lay early morning; is that standard or do they lay whenever they feel like it?

Chris

 

So I locked the girls in for two days, to see what I might get - today when I let them out (they were very grateful) there was one perfect egg in the nest. So their production really must be down. I am going to add yogurt with calcium to their daily routine, to see if that helps. they have oyster shell at all times, but maybe it is not tasty enough.

 

Today, I have three nice eggs in the nest box, so maybe they have simply been off. I will add BOSS, as well as increase calcium in yogurt maybe. Thanks for all the great support and information!