Chicken hasn't laid in 2 months. Now molting.

ThelmaOrLouise

Chirping
6 Years
Oct 27, 2015
43
8
79
SC
So I have a red sex linked hen that I have had for about 8 months. When I bought her the seller told me she was about 13 months old and had already had her first molt. She laid abundantly until 2 months ago. Then her shells got thin and she stopped laying completely. She has a good diet, isn't sick, acts normal. I thought maybe she was just older than the seller realized as they had a lot of hens. But now she is molting. Isn't 2 months a bit excessive to go with out laying before a molt? I'm a newbie but kind of at a loss here...
 
Sex links often burn out early and just quit laying between 1-2 years. Molting this time of year will often be caused by stress or being broody.
 
Usually the first molt doesn't happen until around 18 months of age and usually in the fall.

What exactly are you feeding?
 
Hens lay a clutch of eggs than quit laying to go broody, so if you remove her eggs she doesn't care she's still broody, it's a biological hormonal state, they don't lay while broody, that would add eggs to a clutch and cause many to not hatch. So they stop laying a day or so before beginning to set.
 

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