I wonder if a lot of it is just chicken angst at a what to them is a big change? Anything that upsets them can affect their egg laying and changing their feed does seem to make them unhappy to some extent no matter how you are doing it. It doesn't explain why they think they are starving to death unless they really are not eating most of the feed, just throwing it around since it doesn't look like what they think food ought to be.
The time of year / daylight hours are starting to affect the older birds I've noticed here also, so that could be part of it on the older laying hens, but should not really affect younger ones much that way.
Chickens will usually have a big molt when they are around 1.5-2 years old, sometimes they will go through smaller molts or molt gradually, but your girls at six months should not really be in the middle of a big molt.
The time of year / daylight hours are starting to affect the older birds I've noticed here also, so that could be part of it on the older laying hens, but should not really affect younger ones much that way.
Chickens will usually have a big molt when they are around 1.5-2 years old, sometimes they will go through smaller molts or molt gradually, but your girls at six months should not really be in the middle of a big molt.
They're still a lot smaller than usual though. They still act like they're starving when I give them fresh food and while I was watching them eat, they ate the big pieces first. So, I'll probably upset them again when I switch back to pellets, but I think they'll be much happier in the long run. My Leghorns are still pretty moody, but hopefully it'll change soon.
