mooominmama
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not many eggs...
we have 4 hens, 2 are about 18 months old(?? breed), we got 2 new little brown hens about a month ago, they have a large - ish field to wander about in and share the house and after initial not wanting to be friends seem to be getting along well now. we're only getting 1 or 2 eggs a day (same as pre-new hens) and frequently none. we know the newbies do lay sometimes cos their eggs are different. they have layers pellets in the morning and mixed corn in the evenings as well as scraps occasionally... why dont we get more eggs??? 
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Jonnyboy
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Try searching about, ours go off message from time to time and I find a clutch under a bush or in a flattened clump of grass.
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Chez
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I spent a very pleasant couple of hours logging our chooks activities a couple of days ago and discovered that three of them are laying in the middle of a huge bush by the fence. I'm hoping they keep on doing so, as it's relatively easy to get the eggs out  .
Another, less cheery alternative is maybe you have an egg-eater - although you do tend to find shells? Or magpies or crows (or even a dog) that steals the eggs?
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jocorless
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Our ex-batt's (Warren types) really really do not like grotty weather - it completely knocks them off lay apart from 1 who always lays no matter what - We've gone down from 4/5 eggs a day to 2 Max - One of them from the Cream Legbar - They also did this to me a few weeks ago - again coinciding with some grotty weather
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vanessa
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Chickens are temperamental creatures  They'll go off-lay at the drop of a hat. 
As has already been suggested, maybe they're laying "away". When mine do that, if the eggs are easily accessible, I always pop a couple of golf balls in place of the eggs ... sometimes when mine lay away, they go stroppy if they feel I've stolen their eggs, and then either go off-lay, or find somewhere else to lay their eggs.
Egg thieves include rats, weasels and martens as well as larger birds (and dogs, of course). Particularly likely if they're laying away but thieves have been known to raid hen-houses for eggs. If you suspect this might be the case, hang some dark material just inside the pop-holes ... most thieves won't go where they can't see where they're going (if you see what I mean!), but it doesn't stop the chooks coming and going.
There's also an old adage "wet legs, no eggs" ... most chickens don't like wet weather, and will go off-lay for that, too. Thundery weather is also likely to put them off.
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pookie
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ditto what everyone else says, plus, adding new chooks to the established group is stressful for them and can stop them laying regularly for a while.
Just go out with a clipboard and pen, all Mrs Tweedy-like, and they may just get their acts together 
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vanessa
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... or start muttering about Sunday lunch
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pookie
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or shake a box of paxo at them
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Green Rosie
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Ours have been on and off laying recently - with the emphasis on off. Various chicken cookery books have been left around for them to see and then today I found a clutch of three eggs in the flower bed and we got a huge egg in the nesting boxes
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vanessa
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See, they're not stupid
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mooominmama
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thanks for the suggestions...i reckon they know i'd be bluffing as im a veggie! anyway we had 2 eggs today... they do seem to lay in their nests only, though i did once find egg shell in the field... we dont have magpies over here, but crows sometimes take eggs dont they??
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Chez
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Yes, crows will. And didn't someone on the forum find a hedgehog pinching their eggs recently? Can't remember who.
If you like, you can tell them that Arvo and I will come round and sort them out if they don't start performing. He's currently blaspheming with his hand up a chicken's bottom, trying to get it's insides out
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mooominmama
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mooominmama
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mystery solved... our neighbour, out walking his dog, saw a crow in the field and rather suspiciously, some broken egg shells... hmmm...
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vanessa
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Try to find some way to hang some dark curtain fabric in strips just inside the pop-holes - the crows won't go in, but the chooks will.
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