They're more than a year old, so young, but it's not the start of their laying career. It happened occasionally in the fall, and stopped for most of the winter. The suspect bird (it's one of two, but without the fully-formed shells, it's hard to tell) is a Buff Orp. Now that it's happening again, we can isolate her and figure it out. A "sister" of hers, same breed acquired at the same time, died from being egg-bound / peritonitis before we figured out what was going on -- I'm concerned it could be a stock/breed defect, consistent with what fancifowl comments? These two Orps in particular last year never laid more than a handful of eggs, some of which were fairly brittle, while all the other hens' eggs are quite robust. They all have free access to oyster shell, and eat the same ration, scraps and scratch (save the one Sicilian Buttercup who can fly out of the pen and gets all sorts of garden goodies). She may be bound for the soup pot, though...

Most do slow down, but the upside on my older hens are eggs so large, even the cartons designed for jumbo eggs won't close. I think Brendasue has it, in that your hybrid breeds seem to keep cranking.....those who are fantastic layers in their youth. My older hens are golden comets a hybrid off Rhode Island Reds......who really are an old breed but so prolific that they are seldom called heritage. I know I have a few up there so old that I've been teased of running an avian geriatric facility. I brought new blood in this year and the ones who are past three are going to be going bye-bye. I don't like butchering but I think that is their fate for broths.

If money is tight you can cover the open (wire) areas with heavy plastic but be sure to have a low and high vent (about 3x12") to allow air flow and to expel excess heat during the day (greenhouse effect). Be sure to keep the lower vent from being blocked by snow. I've always enclosed the smaller runs with double layer of plastic and inflated them with a greenhouse inflation fan. This keeps the wind noise down and adds strength to the plastic if some predator tries to go through it (hard for them to get a hold of the plastic). Use a 60 to 100W light bulb in the coop, be sure to use a porcelain fixture and if you can put it on a thermostat that will turn it on only if it gets below 34F and turn off at 38F that will prevent overheating. Increase carbs in their diet with Wheat/Oats/rye or corn. This will give them extra fat reserves to help them through the colder spells. Keep and eye on their weight so they don't get too fat. Any change in diet should be a gradual process.

We are in West Texas. We've actually had two snow storms already. Not bad ones but bad enough. The chickens were all grazing in our alfalfa field so that has the fresh greens covered pretty well. I can't believe it is still green after 6 inches of snow but it is. It's not growing any more though and I had to clear out all our irrigation pipes for the winter so it's not being watered either. The roosters are still grazing it. I can't wait till spring! I hate these winters we get. My whole time in the military, 40 years as a dependant and active duty myself, I only spent maybe 2 years total in a place that actually gets cold in the winter. I used to plan to retire in the PI or maybe southern california but recent events and the business I now own prevent that so I am just dealing with it. Texas is a nice place to farm at least. I put a digital timer in the coop last night and set it to come on a few minutes after sunrise and off about 8 PM. It's nice and warm in there but maybe this will help out a little without wearing them out early. This will help my son feeding them too. I usually tell him to go give the birds dinner about 5pm but he is so slow he doesn't find his way out there till 7 or so. He doesn't eat till all the animals are fed and that didn't even make him speed up. Teenagers. I just went out and checked all the birds myself again. I do that at least once a day. I checked real hard for mites this time, picking up every hen. All clean. One of our old hens got tore up pretty bad by the roosters this year too and she has almost all her feathers back now. Everybody seems happy and healthy. I know they must be enjoying the break from the roosters.