Too young to molt?

[asmilligan17]

I have a mix of chickens-different breeds, different ages, different flocks. The older Red Star's are definitely molting (it looks sooo awful, poor things). The younger Australorps and Ameraucanas (hatched this past May) don't look like they're molting--but we are only getting eggs from the australorps and none from the ameraucanas. We were getting many from them this summer and none for over a month!

Is it molting and I just can't tell, or is something else going on? I'm worried I'm doing something wrong.

 

[Kittymomma]

They may be going thru a mini-molt, but it's just as likely that they are just more sensitive to the shorter days and that is what is causing them to slow down in the laying dept.