What do you all think of this?

[hatrabbit]

18 months ago I was given 2 full grown hens, Red Sex Links. Using this forum I quickly came up to speed on being a chicken owner and all last year got an egg per day from each hen, with a day off about every week and a half. Then in winter, there were feathers all over the yard but only one of them looked like she had molted... I thought that was odd. Come spring, only the one who molted started laying again, the other - zip. Not an egg all year.

My understanding is that chickens don't go from full blast production to zero, they taper off. Thinking that the one hen stopping laying may be diet related I have experimented with different feeds (their usual food is all purpose mash with scratch in the afternoon). So last week I decided to try something new. I went and bought a pound of ground beef and cooked it up, mixed it with some rice and gave it to them over 7 days in the afternoons. The result - after 3 days, no eggs from either chicken. Weird.

Anyone here have thoughts on why one chicken wouldn't molt, then completely stop laying? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[aart]

Any drastic change, like a major feed change, can throw off laying.
Are you supplementing just a little beef/rice every day, or did you stop the mash/scratch and replace with the beef/rice?

Not all molts are total and drastic, some are slow and subtle.

What do her comb and wattles look like?
Bright, plump, waxy red usually mean laying.
Pale, shriveled, dryish looking means not laying.

Do you know how old the hens were when you got them, production birds like RSL lay can like mad for a couple years then stop.