RIR's suddenly not laying daily anymore...why?

Disco

In the Brooder
6 Years
Apr 29, 2013
10
0
22
Hi everyone! I've used this site for lots of great information but had not officially joined. This is my first post and I'm hoping the community can provide some answers with a bit of a problem we have.

My 3 RIR's started laying about 4 months ago, and since then each were regularly laying an egg a day. This is our first experience with backyard chickens and we were very excited to see fresh delicious eggs every morning. A few months later we added 2 Wyandotte's to the flock, they are now also laying but they tend to skip a day.

About 2 weeks ago, our Reds started skipping days, and now we are at the point where we only get 1 or sometimes 2 eggs from them. Some days none of the Reds lay any eggs! The Wyandottes are still laying like before, so I'm wondering what could be affecting the Reds that is not affecting the other two?!

They always have their feed dispenser full and they get plenty of water. The only thing that has changed was that we got them a different kind of food which they don't seem to like as much. They are now eating a new kind of scratch and we got them some organic pellets. Before they were eating scratch+mashed which they went crazy over.

Another thing is that their run area has dried up so they are not getting as much grass as before, however we do throw some grass clippings in and feed them some of our vegetable scraps.

The RIR's don't look sick and they act the same, I just don't understand why they are not laying an egg a day like before. If you guys have any ideas I'd love to hear them. We miss our brown eggs!

Thanks!
 
Ok I just went out to clean their coop and noticed that Ginger (one of the reds) is missing a patch of feathers on her neck. They are all the same age, around 9 months, could it be that they are all starting to molt at the same time???
 

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