What's the deal? Where's my eggs?

[AmsoilJim]

So a few weeks ago my young RIReds started laying. I was consistently getting eggs from them every day and then a couple days ago I went to collect eggs and there were none from them, no brown eggs, just 1 white eggs from my leghorn. It has been the same thing for a couple days now.
I feed them layer crumbles but they don't eat a lot of it because I left them free range for several hours every day.
So now I'm wondering what is going on... did they just stop laying or is "someone" eating the brown eggs?
When I look in the nesting boxes and the coop I see no evidence of and broken eggs, but I don't know how well they would clean it up.

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

So a few weeks ago my young RIReds started laying. I was consistently getting eggs from them every day and then a couple days ago I went to collect eggs and there were none from them, no brown eggs, just 1 white eggs from my leghorn. It has been the same thing for a couple days now.
I feed them layer crumbles but they don't eat a lot of it because I left them free range for several hours every day.
So now I'm wondering what is going on... did they just stop laying or is "someone" eating the brown eggs?
When I look in the nesting boxes and the coop I see no evidence of and broken eggs, but I don't know how well they would clean it up.

Could they be laying 'easter eggs' in your yard?

 

[misskes]

They're probably laying in the yard.

 

[Krazyquilts]

So a few weeks ago my young RIReds started laying. I was consistently getting eggs from them every day and then a couple days ago I went to collect eggs and there were none from them, no brown eggs, just 1 white eggs from my leghorn. It has been the same thing for a couple days now.
I feed them layer crumbles but they don't eat a lot of it because I left them free range for several hours every day.
So now I'm wondering what is going on... did they just stop laying or is "someone" eating the brown eggs?
When I look in the nesting boxes and the coop I see no evidence of and broken eggs, but I don't know how well they would clean it up.

I just spoke to a friend of mine a couple days ago and she had a new funny story to tell me. She has eleven Isa Browns that are new layers and hadn't gotten any eggs in two weeks. One night when putting the hens to bed, she was missing one hen so she starting searching for it. Eventually she found the hen on some hay bales in the sheep barn sitting on what turned out to be 40 eggs! My friend shook her head, put the hen to bed and threw away the eggs since she didn't know how long they had been in the barn. The next night, the exact same thing, only 10 hens in the coop. This time, the silly chicken was sitting on a cozy nest wedged in between three hay bales - on another 38 eggs! Apparently she'd convinced all the other hens to lay in the same two spots because she wants to go broody and raise a BIG family.

 

[FrankHomestead]

I just spoke to a friend of mine a couple days ago and she had a new funny story to tell me. She has eleven Isa Browns that are new layers and hadn't gotten any eggs in two weeks. One night when putting the hens to bed, she was missing one hen so she starting searching for it. Eventually she found the hen on some hay bales in the sheep barn sitting on what turned out to be 40 eggs! My friend shook her head, put the hen to bed and threw away the eggs since she didn't know how long they had been in the barn. The next night, the exact same thing, only 10 hens in the coop. This time, the silly chicken was sitting on a cozy nest wedged in between three hay bales - on another 38 eggs! Apparently she'd convinced all the other hens to lay in the same two spots because she wants to go broody and raise a BIG family.

 

[kitkat5505]

Either keep them confined to the coop and run for a few days or watch them while they free range to see if they're laying somewhere else.

 

[AmsoilJim]

I haven't seen any eggs in the yard and they don't go free ranging until after I get home from work which is around 4 pm, and they were laying eggs by 10 am. Would they hold off laying until I let them out? I can keep them in the coop/run to test this theory

 

[FrankHomestead]

They're new to laying so eggs will be inconsistent for a while, I wouldn't worry.

 

[kingchickies]

I have had a couple of my layers that have been very regular go through all the motions (before egg squawking, sitting in nest a while, get out sing egg song) watch them get out of the nest singing go to the nest and no egg! 3 did it in one day a couple days ago. I just have no clue what's going on... they do it once every so often for a day or so then they will lay again. I'm hoping just normal early layer glitches.. ugh

 

[bobbi-j]

Could they be laying 'easter eggs' in your yard?

That would be my guess...

Either keep them confined to the coop and run for a few days or watch them while they free range to see if they're laying somewhere else.

Another thing you can do - let them out a couple of hours later than you normally do. If they make a beeline for a certain spot, try to keep an eye on them without outright following them. You'll likely see where they're laying. I had one hen that if I followed her too closely, would just wander off until I got tired of watching her. I hate to admit she was smarter than I am...

I haven't seen any eggs in the yard and they don't go free ranging until after I get home from work which is around 4 pm, and they were laying eggs by 10 am. Would they hold off laying until I let them out? I can keep them in the coop/run to test this theory

Yes, they may hold off until you get home if they've gotten into the habit of laying somewhere else. If you have plenty of room in your coop/run to keep them confined, yes - you can keep them in for a while.