what is wrong with my hens

[gracie58]

i used to get 8 eggs a day but the hens all but 2 quit laying they are 8 months old they were all laying a month ago but then they quit i live in fla so it cant be because of the cold my husband say if they dont lay soon we will get rid of them because the feed is just a waist of money

 

[UrbanPHXChicks]

Chickens need about 16 hours of daylight to produce eggs (believe this is the number). Some stop laying completely in the winter because of the lack of light, the cold isn't the issue. They pick back up again in the spring. This is normal and some consider to be the rest form laying that the chickens need every year. Others will put out an artificial light to turn on in the morning to get them to lay during winter.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Very often hens at this age keep on laying right on through their first winter. What are you feeding them? Have they ever been dewormed? Are any of them starting to molt? I occasionally have first year birds go through a light molt their first fall and stop laying. There are various natural reasons hens will stop laying at certain times, it's an expected part of chicken keeping, they are not vending machines after all. Given the time it takes to raise a hen to point-of-lay it would be a shame to get rid of a bunch of young hens that age. I have 5 1/2 year old birds who still lay an egg every other day.

X2 what UrbanPHXChicks noted about supplemental light. You can try adding a few hours of extra light to encourage hens bodies to continue to lay when they would otherwise stop. I personally prefer to let my hens take a break over the winter as nature intended. But for many folks eggs are the first priority and that's fine, if that's the case then try the lighting.

 

[gracie58]

i think they are molting i that means they are losing their feathers i am a first time owner so i dont know all the terms we got them from tractor supply so i think they were already dewormed i feed them pellets from the farm store and scraps like bread and veg.

 

[cafarmgirl]

I can assure you Tractor Supply does not deworm anything they sell and chicks don't require deworming anyway. That is something you would start doing at around 6 months old more or less.

If your birds are molting/loosing feathers, that combined with the shortened daylight hours will cause them to stop laying. SInce they are young birds they may start laying again when they are done with their molt.