Chicken hasn't laid an egg in months, faded comb

[carolthom]

We have a Welsummer hen who is about 18 months old that has stopped laying eggs, for about 2 months, and her comb/wattles have been faded for about that long. She has also lost her tail feathers in the last week. She still acts normal. All my other hens have bright red combs and lay eggs. Not sure about moulting, since none of my chickens have done it. But I'm hoping it's something simple like that.

 

[Chicken Girl1]

can you get a picture of her?

 

[carolthom]

This is the best picture I can get of her. I included some of the others to show the difference in color, you can see that her tail feathers are gone making her look stumpy in the rear.

 

[Chicken Girl1]

Do you have a rooster?

 

[carolthom]

We used to but got rid of him about 4-6 months ago.

 

[Chicken Girl1]

Is she picked a lot?

 

[carolthom]

I wouldn't say a lot, but she goes out of her way to stay out of their way, usually when they are eating grain. She even roosts in the nesting box instead of on the roost. I've never seen them pulling at her feathers or anything, at most she may get a peck on the head. But, like I said, she's learned to stay out of their way. They were all in the barn together in this picture and they didn't offer to bother her at all.

 

[Chicken Girl1]

She may just be stressed from being picked on.

 

[carolthom]

So, is it safe to assume that if she had something like worms or cocci or something like that, then the rest of the chickens would have it too? We have goats, and if one of them has something like that, then I assume more would have it. When we had a rooster, it was pretty stressful on all the chickens and she still laid eggs and had a red comb. I just want to make sure that she isn't sick with something and I catch it too late.

 

[Chicken Girl1]

Well you could check out the Learning center articles on those subjects just be safe.