Anemic 9 month old hens losing weight and feathers

[PlainChicks]

No she is not an avian vet, she is a rural vet with chicken experience. I will find an avian vet though. And I will take them back to be seen again in the meantime as well as making the suggested changes.

 

[PlainChicks]

Thank you all for help and interest! I will put your suggestions to good use

 

[ChickenCanoe]

One can't tell a great deal from a picture but they look good to me.
They don't look like they are molting either but I've had plenty of birds hatch early in the year and molt in the fall - that's about 9 months. Many different stressors can induce molt regardless of age or time of year.
Perhaps it is feather mites if the shafts are compromised.

 

[rebrascora]

My gut feeling is that this is no more than an early moult. Are you aware of what pin feathers look like.... The below quote from you suggests to me that they may have been moulting because pin feathers look exactly like the quills of a porcupine...

My girls are only 9 months old so they shouldn’t be molting and the feathers are definitely breaking off leaving quills like a porcupine

There have been quite a few posts on the forum this year about birds moulting in their first winter. During moult it is common for them to lose weight and also appear to lose weight, they stop egg production and their combs shrink and become pale and dry looking. Sometimes they will go off their food and not want to go out and generally feel sorry for themselves. It takes time after a moult for them to build their body condition back up to the point that they can spare surplus nutrients to produce eggs. The short days mean that there is only limited time for feeding and this means that the build up is slow. Some birds will get over a moult quicker than others and some take it quite badly.

My gut feeling is that your birds have gone through an early moult and are just taking time to build back up to laying. I have found that giving them a late evening feed has really helped boost my flock back into production and many of my girls are 4, 5 and 6 yrs old and really enjoy their "midnight feast". Going in at 8-9pm and putting on a light and giving them an hour to top up their crops and make sure water is defrosted so that they can drink too. I give them a slightly warm mash (made with a mixture of layer pellets and chick crumbs soaked in warm water and they all gather around the pan and wolf it down like it is the best treat in the world. It enables me to see that they are all keen to eat at a time of year when I don't otherwise get to spend much time observing them. As long as they are eating enthusiastically, I know there is not too much wrong with them.
It may be that you had some frosty weather earlier in the winter that froze their water and caused them to eat less for a few days or their feed got damp and froze and that triggered the early moult.... it can be something as simple as that.