Couple questions..need help (egg laying, feathers pulled out)

[my5lilrugrats]

Ok first question....

After a year of not having chickens (my old flock of 3 was killed by predators) I decided last spring to get a couple more pullets. I ended up getting two 12 week old (or so I was told) hens, one silver laced wyondotte and one ameraucana. I was told they would start laying in 4-6 weeks but they never did. They went the rest of spring/summer/winter without laying anything. A few days ago my silver laced started being pretty loud but I didn't think anything of it...they are pretty vocal to begin with when They see us. Then yesterday she was so loud, I could hear her from inside my house. I went outside later to feed my horses and saw she laid a perfect brown egg! Yay! The other hen still hasn't laid anything. Do you think she will now? Why would it they have gone this long without laying?

Now my second question...
After going to retrieve a second egg today from my silver laced, I noticed that shes got a big bald patch on her lower back. I haven't seen any blood or the other hen pecking at her so I'm wondering why she did this to herself? I don't know when she would have done it because I hadn't really looked before, she's big and fluffy and I only saw today because I was looking directly over top of her. Could she have pulled them out cause she was stressed over laying finally?..it must have been uncomfortable since she squawked for days before laying that first one.

Thanks for reading and any insight I'd appreciate!

 

[Lesa]

The feather loss is probably a molt- unless your other girl is a roo??? Are you feeding layer pellets? Are you sure eggs aren't being hidden somewhere? Good luck!

 

[my5lilrugrats]

Nope the other is definitely a hen, and there is no way the eggs are hiding. They stay in their coop and run always because of the hawks, I can't let them have free range after what happened to my other ones. They get egg layer and scratch feeds.