No eggs

[WB Chicks]

I have 2 chickens...Light Brahma, named Peepers, and a Gold Laced Wyandotte named Cooney. They are both 1.5 yrs old. Cooney started laying at about 20 weeks and was laying practically an egg a day. Peepers started laying at about 24 weeks and then stopped at 36 weeks old. No Eggs from Cooney since this past August. They have a wonderful, very safe, coop with a nice nesting box and good size run. Secured with chain link fencing, poultry wire and buried hardware cloth on the covered run and hardware cloth on coop. Plenty of food and fresh water plus warmed oatmeal with raisins, watermelon, kale, mealworms, yogurt and blueberries.
If anyone has suggestions on how i might encourage my girls to lay again, please chime in. i have had them since they were a week old!

 

[rosemarythyme]

They're heading into molt, if they haven't started already, and that coupled with shortening daylight hours will greatly reduce or stop laying. For me, as we have even shorter days, we don't get eggs post molt until several weeks after winter solstice.

 

[WB Chicks]

Thank you for the info. With molting, and loss of feathers, is it important to keep the coop really warm?

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Thank you for the info. With molting, and loss of feathers, is it important to keep the coop really warm?

Molting is the loss of feathers.
And no, no extra insulation is needed unless it’s constantly freezing. Just add a little fat to their diets.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Thank you for the info. With molting, and loss of feathers, is it important to keep the coop really warm?

A draft free, dry area to sleep is all they need. Adding heat makes it more difficult for them to adjust to the colder weather outside as they go in and out. Maybe in extreme cases (very cold with a severe molt), heat might be needed, but unlikely that's the case with your flock.

 

[WB Chicks]

Thank you for the additional information. I would say with only 2 Girls, they might be considered a ‘Flocklett’ !! We Appreciate all suggestions

 

[IamRainey]

I share your pain!

I've got 9 "laying" hens and 2 that should be any day. Nine of them are in some stage of their molt including -- thank god! -- the back end. Two are 3yo. Four are 2yo. Three are 1yo. And 2 are just approaching 30weeks. I'm presently getting 2 eggs on a good day and there are too many days with NO eggs at all!

I used to have 2 dozen fresh eggs and half a dozen hard boiled eggs in my fridge before I was ready to share. And I shared a LOT. My hens slowed down but they laid through the winter with no supplemental light. But now I'm actually buying eggs at the grocery store!