Top 5 Factors Your Hens Quit Laying – Defined by Gail Damerow
Top 5 Factors Your Hens Quit Laying – Defined by Gail Damerow
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Every single backyard chicken keeper has expert it: one day, your hens are laying reliably, and the next, the nesting boxes are mysteriously empty. In accordance with Gail Damerow, renowned poultry pro and writer of Storey’s Tutorial to Increasing Chickens, this egg-laying pause is frequently not a thriller in any way. You will discover crystal clear, pure good reasons hens halt laying, and comprehension them can assist you help your flock and restore productivity. Listed here are Damerow’s leading 5 motives hens cease laying—and what you can do about them.
one. Molting: A Normal Pause
As Damerow describes, molting is a annually occasion in a hen’s everyday living, generally transpiring in late summer season to early tumble. Through this time, hens drop and regrow feathers—a process that needs a tremendous number of Vitality and protein. Egg output typically stops during this period, as the hen's human body focuses entirely on feather regeneration.
What You Can Do: Aid your hens using a superior-protein feed or snacks like mealworms and scrambled eggs. Stay away from stressing the flock and Enable nature just take its class. After the molt is comprehensive, egg-laying should slowly resume.
two. Shortened Daylight Several hours
Light exposure plays an important purpose in stimulating a hen’s reproductive system. Damerow points out that hens need to have fourteen–sixteen several hours of daylight for consistent laying. As daylight decreases in the fall and Winter season months, so does egg creation.
What You are able to do: Take into consideration adding a light source inside the coop by using a timer to simulate pure Fun88 Casino daylight. A small-wattage bulb turning on in the early morning can safely extend "daylight" and support winter laying. Avoid sudden lights variations Which may worry your birds.
three. Very poor Diet
Diet is foundational to egg manufacturing. Damerow warns that feeding chickens a diet program lacking in protein, calcium, or essential natural vitamins may result in less or no eggs. Treats and scratch grains, even though entertaining, can dilute the balanced nourishment furnished by business layer feed.
What You Can Do: Ensure your flock has constant use of substantial-top quality layer feed, thoroughly clean h2o, and calcium health supplements like crushed oyster shell. Limit treats to not more than 10% in their each day diet program.
four. Strain and Environmental Aspects
Stress is A serious contributor to reduced egg production. As outlined by Damerow, stressors can contain predator threats, overcrowding, bullying, extreme temperatures, or maybe shifting the coop. Hens are sensitive to alter and may respond by halting egg manufacturing.
What You are able to do: Create a serene, safe natural environment for the birds. Retain constant routines, deliver ample House, and deal with sources of worry including loud noises or intense flockmates.
five. Age and Health Issues
Damerow reminds us that laying isn't really a lifelong endeavor. Most hens start out laying all-around five–6 months of age, peak at about 1–2 many years, after which step by step decelerate. Sickness, parasites, and reproductive troubles might also interfere with laying.
What You are able to do: Keep an eye on your hens’ General overall health. Carry out frequent parasite checks, maintain a thoroughly clean coop, and seek advice from a vet in case you detect indications of health issues. More mature hens should be important members on the flock even though their laying times are powering them.
Remaining Views
As Gail Damerow often suggests, “Chickens don’t just prevent laying for no rationale.” If your hens have a split, it’s their means of signaling that anything within their surroundings or biology has shifted. With a little bit of observation, great care, plus some endurance, you can assist information your flock back to healthy egg output—or just enjoy the all-natural rhythms in their lives.