My 12 Buckeye girls have been molting for 2 months, started in August. Egg production went from 8-10 a day to 1 or 2. Now everyone is pretty much refeathered but still only 1 or 2 eggs. So how long before they start up again?I have been supplementing their food with game bierd feed (22%) and meat scraps.
No way to say exactly but if it has been 2 months, I would expect them to be just about done with their molt. However with the shorter days you might find it is Spring before they really get their groove back.
Don't you just LOVE Buckeyes? I have one, and she is hands-down my favorite. I am looking forward to adding to my Buckeye flock in the spring. I have 8 layers currently, and am lucky to get 2-3 eggs a day. Two are molting, but the rest have just slowed down due to the change in daylight. I have compared notes with lots of locals, and they say egg production always falls off around Halloween and picks back up after Christmas. I hope that's true. I don't mind giving the girls a little "Fall Break", they have been working hard all year!
markep...don't give up --- mine have been in the same time frame and situation as yours ... 3 - 5 eggs a day...molting...gathered 11 today ....they are FREE...Yea...look so good with all the new shiny feathers ... full and fluffy...happy again after a predator killed 25 pullets and 9 roosters in 3 days....had to move all 40 chickens into the large hen house and attached enclosed coop... all together until I could completely re do and try to catch the darn thing (no luck)...they are all in together now and are content...will leave them this way...but the stress of everything sent them into a hard molt until now....thank God we are back to normal.....have 25 Isa Brown- 5 week pullets that are going into the "killer pen" ...what a name..any way thats what it has been called till now...put 6 roosters in to test until today all was well, I processed the roosters and getting ready for the babies....I just love it....so don't be discouraged they will lay when their little bodies are ready...it takes a lot of energy to make new feathers and free range all day....G
