Depending on the hatchery i got each of the chickens from, some of them lay fewer eggs during the winter and some of them stop laying eggs during the winter. I believe it was a 3 fold problem. One, less chickens were laying because it was winter. Two, the chickens did not like the kind of nesting material i switched to in the nesting boxes and so were laying on the ground. Three, one of the youngest chickens in the most recent batch is an egg eater and was leaving only fragments of shell as evidence of her treason when she was finding her sisters eggs on the floor of the coop. I eventually bought little chihuahua sized dog crates and water dispensers and made a plan to separate and watch each chicken one weekend to find out who was eating eggs. They would need to be dispatched and the rest could stay. Half the chickens are menopausal at this point but i gave them my word if i took all their babies they’d have a permanent home here and could live out their menopausal days with no fear of the cook pot. I gave my word and i meant it so here lies iron rose homestead, land of the happily menopausal chickens living out their retirement years repurposed as willing garbage disposals for kitchen scraps. I switched the nesting material back to the old mats of compressed material like they liked and suddenly i had an egg the following day, after not getting a single egg for two months. 7 days later i was getting 2 or 3 eggs a day every other day. By the end of 4 weeks i could expect 2 to 4 eggs daily. I never had to off any chickens. Back in the nesting boxes, the chickens guarded their eggs against their thieving sister, thus protecting her identity and keeping her alive.