Major five Reasons Your Hens Quit Laying – Defined by Gail Damerow
Major five Reasons Your Hens Quit Laying – Defined by Gail Damerow
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Just about every backyard chicken keeper has knowledgeable it: in the future, your hens are laying reliably, and the subsequent, the nesting containers are mysteriously vacant. In keeping with Gail Damerow, renowned poultry qualified and writer of Storey’s Guidebook to Raising Chickens, this egg-laying pause is frequently not a mystery in the least. You can find obvious, all-natural motives hens quit laying, and being familiar with them will help you guidance your flock and restore productivity. Allow me to share Damerow’s major 5 reasons hens end laying—and what you can do about them.
1. Molting: A Normal Pause
As Damerow clarifies, molting is really a yearly occasion in the hen’s everyday living, ordinarily transpiring in late summer months to early tumble. All through this time, hens lose and regrow feathers—a process that needs a huge level of Vitality and protein. Egg manufacturing frequently stops all through this period, as the hen's system focuses totally on feather regeneration.
What You are able to do: Assist your hens having a high-protein feed or snacks like mealworms and scrambled eggs. Prevent stressing the flock and let nature acquire its training course. As soon as the molt is full, egg-laying should really slowly resume.
two. Shortened Daylight Several hours
Light-weight publicity performs a vital part in stimulating a hen’s reproductive procedure. Damerow details out that hens want 14–16 hours of daylight for regular laying. As daylight decreases in the autumn and Winter season months, so does egg output.
What You are able to do: Consider adding a light source within the coop having a timer to simulate organic daylight. A minimal-wattage bulb turning on while in the early morning can properly increase "daylight" and guidance Winter season laying. Stay away from sudden lights alterations that might worry your birds.
3. Bad Nourishment
Nutrition is foundational to egg production. Damerow warns that feeding chickens a food plan lacking in protein, calcium, or critical nutritional vitamins can result in less or no eggs. Treats and scratch grains, while pleasurable, can dilute the balanced diet supplied by commercial layer feed.
What You Can Do: Assure your flock has continual use of high-good quality layer feed, clean water, and calcium dietary supplements like crushed oyster shell. Limit treats to no more than 10% of their every day Fun88 Casino diet regime.
4. Pressure and Environmental Components
Worry is An important contributor to lessened egg production. Based on Damerow, stressors can contain predator threats, overcrowding, bullying, Excessive temperatures, as well as relocating the coop. Hens are sensitive to alter and may respond by halting egg generation.
What You Can Do: Make a tranquil, Risk-free surroundings for the birds. Maintain dependable routines, give enough Area, and handle sources of pressure like loud noises or intense flockmates.
five. Age and Health Issues
Damerow reminds us that laying just isn't a lifelong endeavor. Most hens start laying all-around five–6 months of age, peak at about 1–two a long time, and then progressively slow down. Ailment, parasites, and reproductive issues also can interfere with laying.
What You Can Do: Keep watch over your hens’ Total health and fitness. Perform regular parasite checks, preserve a thoroughly clean coop, and check with a vet in case you observe signs of sickness. More mature hens should be beneficial users with the flock regardless of whether their laying days are behind them.
Remaining Ideas
As Gail Damerow often claims, “Chickens don’t just quit laying for no rationale.” If the hens take a split, it’s their way of signaling that a thing in their natural environment or biology has shifted. With a little bit of observation, very good treatment, plus some patience, you can assist guideline your flock again to wholesome egg creation—or simply recognize the pure rhythms in their lives.