My chickens have quit laying

[elizaj57]

Help. I just got 4 adult, laying, chickens for my birthday in July, and am new to this. I have 2 black Austrolobe, 1 Rhode Island red and 1 Ameracauna. (Please forgive the spelling.) They were all 4 laying when I got them, but now only one (one of the blacks) is. Any ideas what could have caused it? Possibilities:
We ran out of their original (organic) feed, and I bought new (non-organic) feed from a different supplier.
We went on vacation for a week, and they didn't get let out of their pen to roam the yard as usual.
The two reds look like they've started molting.

 

[emzee]

We got barely any eggs while our hens were molting, and we had about 40 chickens!

 

[PortageGirl]

Yep, molting, pretty normal for them to stop laying.

 

[elizaj57]

I thought that might be it. How long until they start laying again? We really miss their eggs!

 

[PortageGirl]

Heh, no exact time frame to give you, they're all different! 3 weeks is probably normal, 4 isn't rare, 5 or more is possible. I'd check for mites too just in case, that can cause enough stress to interfere with laying in really bad infestations, but it’s probably molt. You might want to up their protein, they need that for new feathers… either get a bag of higher protein feed to mix in with their regular stuff, or just give them treats of cat food. Yeah weird, but they’ll love it.