"Egg Less" in the S.F. Bay Area

[Granny Chicken]

I have 2 hens. One is a Black Chocin named K2 and the other is a Blue Chocin named Cojira.
They started laying eggs around 6/7 months.They are about 16 months old now.

My girls are free rangers, eat all the bugs they want in my back yard.
I feed them Layena Crumbles, occasional grit, and food grade diatomaceous earth sprinkled in their feed as needed for parasites.
Once in a while I give them apples or corn on the cob, or they eat fruit that falls from my neighbor's tree.

K2 doesn't want to come out of the coop, has been moody, and has stopped laying all together.
Cojira can't wait for me to open the coop door where she runs out and squawks loudly for a while.
I think Cojira is upset with her sister's moodiness because she has also stopped laying eggs.
They already molted way back in February.They were both laying 1 egg daily, now nothing.

Lately, I have to remove K2 from her nesting box, shut the coop door, and put the ramp up so she will walk around, eat and drink,
If I don't take her out she will stay there all day and not eat or drink.
I have come home from work a few times and found her standing on "top" of the locked coop looking into my bedroom window.
She runs to the back door when she hears me, and then runs ahead of me to the coop, waiting for me to let her in.

Any suggestions? New to BYC site.

Granny Chicken

 

[Happy Chooks]

Is she puffing up and/or screeching at you when you reach for her? Is she on the nest at night? If so, she's broody - meaning she wants to hatch babies. Cochins are a broody breed.

 

[Granny Chicken]

She was acting weird and broody like that in May. Only back then she was always running away from her sister. I kinda think she was being bullied. She did fluff herself out especially her neck feathers. She was being picky about which nesting box she wanted to sit in too.
I couldn't pick her up at all during that time.

I did think she was broody then and left her egg in her box for a while, But after awhile when she refused to come out to eat or drink I got worried.
She is more docile now, she runs towards me when I go out in the backyard instead of away from me. But even now she just wants to go back to the coop and stay inside. I know hens can stay broody a while, but how long can broodiness last?

Now every morning I have to take her out of the coop as she still won;t come out on her own.
Once I take her out she will just sit on the ground in the sun for a while, and then eventually she will get up and act like her old self. She is finally walking next to her sister and pecking at bugs.

This is a very slow process . . . . .