This is the challenge of raising chickens for eggs. Typically, the only chickens who will be laying in the late fall and winter, are those young hens who hatched out earlier this year. After a hen goes into her second season, she will typically molt sometime in the late summer or fall, and then not resume laying until the days start lengthening again around February. Once they start back up again a 2 and 3 year old hen should still be nicely productive and usually lay larger eggs than their first year.
Bottom line -- if you want enough eggs to sustain your family through the winter, you need a lot of hens that less than a year old. How many, if any, of your older and temporarily non-laying hens you want to keep is entirely a matter of personal choice.
If you goals are to maximize eggs and minimize costs, I would keep all the hen less than year old and then save only those older hens who you feel are adding enough to the flock to justify feeding them through the winter break. Maybe they have genetics you want to breed into future hatches. Or good flock leaders, or good at raising chicks. There isn't a right answer, it is what works for you.
so something’s gotta change were spending a fortune on feeding for just one dozen out of that many birds
