Molting / First eggs

[Mannie89]

I am a new chicken owner and learning lots about them from this forum! I have what might be a silly question... like I said, newbie, so bear with me.

My ladies are 12 weeks old right now. I have three White leghorns and three Australorps. I’ve heard they can start laying as early as 18 weeks and as late as six months. When my chickens hit the 18 week mark, it will be around September. Isn’t that when they typically start molting? I know egg production slows down or can stop during molting. Does that mean that my girls will start laying after they stop molting? I also live in Wyoming... winter is cold here and the days are very short. I know that can affect them laying as well! Am I ever going to get eggs? Lol.

 

[Latestarter]

Greetings and welcome to BYC from NE TX! So glad you joined us. OK, several Q's to deal with... First, the breeds you have typically start around 20-26 weeks. Of course some start earlier and some start later. Hope for the best. Hours of daylight dictate when hens lay and when they stop. Shorter days generally trigger molt and they stop laying for the winter. It takes a LOT of energy/protein to regrow feathers. When I lived in CO this would happen around October to November. Generally with young birds, if they start laying before winter, they will NOT molt and continue to lay through winter. They'll then molt in their 2nd fall/winter and stop laying. If they have NOT started before winter onset, they'll normally wait till spring to start.

Many consider this as a rest period for their hens and allow the break for them to rest/recover and prepare to start up again in the spring. Others want them to produce year round so add additional hours of light (14-16 hours total) in the coop to keep them laying regardless of age, or time of year. This puts a tremendous stress on the birds IMHO. You'll need to prepare for heating waterers so they don't freeze, and maintaining good ventilation while keeping direct drafts off them during winter.

There's a wealth of info, knowledge and experience shared in the multitude of threads. Browse around and see what interesting stuff you can find. By all means post away when the desire strikes you, especially if you have questions (provide as much detail/info as possible and pictures truly help)... With all the great folks here, generally someone will respond in no time at all. Please make yourself at home!

Hope you enjoy the site!

 

[CannedMonster]

Latestarter gave you great information.
Another thing that might help is that your chicks will have a teenage molt around 12 weeks.
It should start soon if it hasn’t already.
With my 9 birds it wasn’t an obvious molt.
No naked birds or pin feathers showing lol.
But there were feathers everywhere!
Some of them were more obvious than others because their colors changed somewhat.

 

[aart]

Isn’t that when they typically start molting?

Only adult birds(over a year old)do that....tho have had, and read about, 8-10 month olds having a partial to full molt their first fall.

@ChooksNQuilts has got it right with them having a juvenile molt around 12 weeks.
Have ~12wo's now too...feathers everywhere, if you look close you'll see the pin feathers coming in. Handle gently tho, pin feathers can be 'uncomfortable' when touched.

Whether your pullets start to lay in/around Sept remains to be seen, sometimes they do and sometimes they wait until after solstice...how long after is a crap shoot too.
Not much help, huh?

 

[Mannie89]

Only adult birds(over a year old)do that....tho have had, and read about, 8-10 month olds having a partial to full molt their first fall.

@ChooksNQuilts has got it right with them having a juvenile molt around 12 weeks.
Have ~12wo's now too...feathers everywhere, if you look close you'll see the pin feathers coming in. Handle gently tho, pin feathers can be 'uncomfortable' when touched.

Whether your pullets start to lay in/around Sept remains to be seen, sometimes they do and sometimes they wait until after solstice...how long after is a crap shoot too.
Not much help, huh?

Lots of help! Thank you. I’m grateful to be learning so much from you all.