Where are all my eggs?

[SuburbanChickFarmer]

I have 8 hens that will be 2 years old this Memorial Day. There are 2 of each, Ameracauna, Light Brahma, Dominique, and Cuckoo Maran. My egg laying went down dramatically during the winter and when I became short of eggs, I put a light in their coop on a timer and poof, they started producing more eggs. I removed the light when the days got longer and they continued to lay into early March. Now, I get ONE egg per day/every other day, from my Ameracana hen that lays light green eggs. Nobody else is laying! They are not molting, they are fed Purina Layena, supplemented with oyster shell for calcium, and given kitchen scraps pretty much daily. They are eating and drinking well, get let outside daily to munch on grass and such, and still happy and clucking but no eggs. They are not eating their eggs, I don't have any varmits eating them, , but still only 1 egg per day or so. I so don't want to start buying store bought eggs, YUCK. When I let them outside, they are still in a fenced in area so it's not like they are hiding their eggs from me. Is there anything else I should do?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Not molting, not hiding the eggs, no egg eaters, no predators eating eggs. Sounds like they are not broody. The things I can think of that are left are disease, nutrition, or stress, such as a move, adding to or taking away chickens from the flock which changed the pecking order, a fright from a predator, maybe running out of water for a spell. You might check out these links for other ideas.

Since you are letting them out on grass daily, are you sure they are not hiding them on you? Something eating the eggs or them hiding the eggs are the common causes of something like this. Since you are getting an egg from the same hen every day, I kinda doubt something is eating only the others and leaving that one. You might check out the 3 fingers test in the linked thread.

Virginia Tech – Stopped Laying
http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2902/2902-1097/2902-1097.pdf

Florida – Stopped Laying –
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/ps/ps02900.pdf

Missing eggs thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=190121

Good luck. This is on that can be challenging to solve.

 

[MareeZoCool]

You might try giving those hens some "hiding" places, put a few 34gallon tubs (on their sides) with a bit of straw inside. Or you could set up a few bales of straw in your fenced in area. At least you'll have an idea where to search for eggs, and those hens might be thinking they've found a perfect hiding spot! Best wishes.