Top 5 Reasons Your Hens Stop Laying – Stated by Gail Damerow
Top 5 Reasons Your Hens Stop Laying – Stated by Gail Damerow
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Every single backyard hen keeper has skilled it: sooner or later, your hens are laying reliably, and the subsequent, the nesting bins are mysteriously vacant. In keeping with Gail Damerow, renowned poultry professional and author of Storey’s Manual to Raising Chickens, this egg-laying pause is often not a secret at all. You will find distinct, normal causes hens cease laying, and knowing them can assist you assistance your flock and restore productivity. Here are Damerow’s major 5 causes hens quit laying—and what you are able to do about them.
one. Molting: A Organic Pause
As Damerow explains, molting is usually a yearly event inside of a hen’s lifetime, normally happening in late summer months to early drop. Throughout this time, hens reduce and regrow feathers—a approach that requires a huge level of energy and protein. Egg generation frequently stops all through this period, given that the hen's physique focuses solely on feather regeneration.
What You Can Do: Guidance 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 course. After the molt is finish, egg-laying ought to slowly resume.
two. Shortened Daylight Hours
Light exposure plays an important job in stimulating a hen’s reproductive method. Damerow factors out that hens will need fourteen–sixteen hours of daylight for regular 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 daylight. A small-wattage bulb turning on in the early morning can safely extend "daylight" and support winter laying. Steer clear of unexpected Fun88 Casino lighting variations Which may worry your birds.
three. Lousy Diet
Diet is foundational to egg manufacturing. Damerow warns that feeding chickens a diet program lacking in protein, calcium, or important vitamins may result in much less or no eggs. Treats and scratch grains, when exciting, can dilute the balanced nutrition furnished by business layer feed.
What You Can Do: Ensure your flock has regular use of substantial-top quality layer feed, clean h2o, and calcium health supplements like crushed oyster shell. Limit treats to not more than 10% in their day-to-day diet plan.
four. Pressure and Environmental Elements
Worry is A serious contributor to decreased egg generation. In line with Damerow, stressors can consist of predator threats, overcrowding, bullying, Extraordinary temperatures, and even moving the coop. Hens are sensitive to vary and may respond by halting egg production.
What You Can Do: Produce a tranquil, Secure ecosystem to your birds. Manage steady routines, present ample space, and tackle resources of stress for example loud noises or intense flockmates.
5. Age and Health problems
Damerow reminds us that laying just isn't a lifelong endeavor. Most hens begin laying close to five–six months of age, peak at about one–two many years, then step by step slow down. Sickness, parasites, and reproductive troubles may interfere with laying.
What You are able to do: Keep an eye on your hens’ General overall health. Carry out common parasite checks, maintain a clean coop, and seek advice from a vet when you observe signs of disease. Older hens may still be useful associates in the flock whether or not their laying days are powering them.
Last Ideas
As Gail Damerow frequently says, “Chickens don’t just quit laying for no purpose.” In case your hens have a crack, it’s their strategy for signaling that anything within their surroundings or biology has shifted. With a little bit of observation, great treatment, and many endurance, you will help guidebook your flock back again to healthier egg production—or just recognize the organic rhythms in their life.