First Molt

[Apache12]

I’m in Phx Az so I assume the girls molt later. one is done the other seems close. It’s been a month and no eggs. Pretty normal? Could it go much longer until the days go longer?

 

[Chookchicken]

It’s normal not to get eggs for a few weeks whilst they moult. Considering it’s winter it may be a couple of weeks before they start laying again. Chickens moult when they think it’s cold enough to. Depending on where you live it is normal for them to moult earlier or later.

 

[rosemarythyme]

After their annual adult molt they will generally not resume laying again until there's enough daylight to stimulate them into laying.

 

[aart]

Chickens moult when they think it’s cold enough to.

Molting is triggered by length of daylight, not temperature.
ETA, can be triggered by stress or after brooding.
It can start as early as August.
Depending on the bird it can take weeks to months to finish up,
then longer to begin laying again.

 

[Apache12]

And they will molt every year?
also if it daylight wouldn’t the amount of daylight they need be more definable. Like once there are X number of hours they will lay again? Seems so random

 

[3KillerBs]

Seems so random

There are no guarantees with living animals.

Breeds vary and individuals vary within the breed.

Nowadays commercial chicken farms do not generally keep birds past their first molt but there was a point when the top laying strains were bred to molt late, fast, and hard with quick resumption of production.

My California White is a relict of that time and practice. You can see her progress in this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-molting-story.1504702/

I will breed her this spring and hope she'll pass that trait to her offspring because she laid for a full year before she stopped production to molt.

 

[aart]

And they will molt every year?
also if it daylight wouldn’t the amount of daylight they need be more definable. Like once there are X number of hours they will lay again? Seems so random

Yes, they usually molt every fall/winter, starting in their second fall/winter.
No hard numbers, it's not so much random as varied.
As the days begin shortening more quickly, it can affect different birds differently.
I use dateandtime.info to track sunrsie/sunset/day lengths.

My cockbirds are usually the first to start molting, in early-mid August.
This year some of my older hens(3-4yo) stopped laying in August.
IME, they may start molting sooner and maybe longer, the older they get.

 

[Apache12]

Thank you all. Fun the learn about the birds

 

[Chookchicken]

Molting is triggered by length of daylight, not temperature.

That isn’t the experience I’ve had. We had a few really hot days in October (I live in Australia this was about middle of spring), after about 3-4 days the temperature went back to being cold again. This set of a few of my chickens need to moult. I checked they’re coop I couldn’t find any mites, parasites, anything. I checked them over and they were completely normal except they were moulting. After about 3-4 weeks they had finished and went back to laying.

 

[linguini]

Molting is triggered by length of daylight, not temperature.

Never knew that before! So molting and egg laying stop/slowing are highly correlated!
No wonder 6 out of my flock of 8 have either molted or just starting, and we have only one or two eggs a day from the two that haven't molted yet!