Quote:
Yes, often they will lose a lot of their appetite during a molt. Yours are probably in a mini-molt. That's what it's called when they do a molt at 8-9 months old. Give them extra protein. Corn doesn't have much protein.
I have one girl who stopped laying and started a mini-molt this November, at 7 months old. She really lost her appetite and got pretty thin -- I found this out because I felt her crop, after she roosted one night, and it was empty. Not good. So, I started hand-feeding her just before she roosted for the night, to make sure her crop was full. I gave her high-protein foods like some scrambled eggs, or fish, or cooked soybeans & oatmeal mixed with yogurt and some baby vitamins without iron. Sometimes I gave her a handful of mealworms, because she LOVED them. Molters need a lot of protein to replace feathers. Unlike the full year molt, not all mini-molters lose their appetite, by the way. But my mini-molter definitely lost her appetite for a little over a month. She is just now finishing up her molt, I believe. And recently her appetite seems to have returned to normal and she's filling up her crop, on her own again. Yay, I no longer have to hand-feed her in the kitchen! She hasn't resumed laying yet, but I think it's gonna happen within the next weeks.
For your two girls, I'd regularly check their crops at night. If they are empty (or if you notice them losing weight) then intervene with some tasty protein treats, like I did. Help them fill their crops for the night. If they aren't laying, make sure their treats don't include too much calcium. My molter seemed to dislike foods that were calcium-rich or had oyster shell in them. I think it was because she had stopped laying and didn't need it. However, I didn't change the regular feeder, since I still had 4 other hens that needed and were eating layer feed.