Is she done?

[PennyAndPeepMom]

My two and a half year old Rhode Island Red caught a case of poultry pox this summer, self diagnosed due to a black spot on her comb. She was stressed and stopped laying. That was a few months ago. She seems to have recovered, but is not laying. Will she ever resume laying? Or is she done?

 

[coach723]

Since days are shorter she may not start laying again until spring when the days get longer. She may also have started molt, which will also stop laying until it's complete. Time off from laying can vary greatly from bird to bird, and usually gets longer the older they get. As long as she is otherwise healthy, then worst case she should start back up in spring. The older they get the longer it takes to form each egg also, so the frequency of laying will gradually slow down as they age, until they stop completely if they live long enough. At 2 1/2 I would expect she'll still lay if healthy.

 

[PennyAndPeepMom]

Since days are shorter she may not start laying again until spring when the days get longer. She may also have started molt, which will also stop laying until it's complete. Time off from laying can vary greatly from bird to bird, and usually gets longer the older they get. As long as she is otherwise healthy, then worst case she should start back up in spring. The older they get the longer it takes to form each egg also, so the frequency of laying will gradually slow down as they age, until they stop completely if they live long enough. At 2 1/2 I would expect she'll still lay if healthy.

Thank you! She seems healthy. Last year her sister Penny molted big time. I was looking for the dead body under all of the feathers. Peep just dropped a few feathers. She's dropped a few this year. Could this just be her style of molting?

 

[coach723]

Yes, sometimes they will do a soft molt, feathers are lost and replaced gradually and it's sometimes hard to tell they even are. Other times it can be a hard molt with a feather explosion and large bare spots, or anything in between those two. There is a wide range of normal in molting and it can vary from bird to bird and from year to year. But both growing feathers and making eggs takes a lot of energy and protein, so they can't do both at the same time.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

My two and a half year old Rhode Island Red caught a case of poultry pox this summer, self diagnosed due to a black spot on her comb. She was stressed and stopped laying. That was a few months ago. She seems to have recovered, but is not laying. Will she ever resume laying? Or is she done?

Any 2&1/2 old hen is on the downward slide as far as her egg laying is concerned.
A 2 & 1/2 year old hen RIGHT now is a coming 3 year old.