Su Ba wrote:My thoughts.....
....Since it's spring, the hens should be laying. Two year old birds normally still lay a decent number of eggs although the total output is lower.
....Is the pellet feed for laying chickens? Not any old feed will do, especially with some of the more modern production breeds. A protein boost (meat, cat food, etc) should initiate laying.
.....How long have you had the hens? If the move has been recent, then they may have stopped laying until they adjust well to the new location.
.....If the hens have run of a large area, you may be missing the spot where they are hiding eggs. It's a common enough occurrence. It's happened to me a couple of times.
.....Since the eggs may not be being laid in protected nest boxes, predators may be eating them. In my location, rats, birds, stray dogs, and mongooses steal eggs. No, there are no shell bits left behind most of the time. The eggs simply vanish. One of my friends suspects that a neighbor was stealing her eggs, but trip wire alarms ruled that out. Turned out that it was most likely rats.
.....molting? Hens don't lay eggs if they are molting.
....Chickens do just fine around here in citrus orchards. In fact, my hens readily eat orange pulp. But they won't eat the rinds.
Hope you can sleuth out the answer.
Thanks for all the help everyone!
The chickens were already here at the farm, so they haven't moved anywhere, only we have.
I'm pretty sure they're not molting, and I'm not 100% sure what the pellet feed is as I only live there part time (its my parents property), but I'll have a look next time I'm there-maybe that could be one of the issues. I'll look into that and get some more protein in their diet. If you're right about them not laying in their nest box, I wouldn't be surprised if other birds were getting them, as there as Ibis birds everywhere, and apparently they are partial to chicken eggs!
I'll keep you all posted if I manage to figure out the mystery
