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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Each yard chicken keeper has knowledgeable it: in the future, your hens are laying reliably, and another, the nesting packing containers are mysteriously vacant. According to Gail Damerow, renowned poultry professional and author of Storey’s Guidebook to Elevating Chickens, this egg-laying pause is usually not a mystery whatsoever. You'll find very clear, organic causes hens cease laying, and knowing them will help 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, generally happening in late summer months to early slide. Throughout this time, hens lose and regrow feathers—a course of action that requires an amazing level of energy and protein. Egg generation frequently stops all through this period, as being the hen's physique focuses fully on feather regeneration.
What You Can Do: Assist your hens with a substantial-protein feed or snacks like mealworms and scrambled eggs. Avoid stressing the flock and Allow mother nature consider its study course. As soon as the molt is total, egg-laying really should gradually resume.
2. Shortened Daylight Hrs
Gentle publicity performs a vital part in stimulating a hen’s reproductive procedure. Damerow points out that hens want 14–sixteen several hours of daylight for dependable laying. As daylight decreases in the fall and winter months, so does egg creation.
What You Can Do: Look at introducing a lightweight resource within the coop using a timer to simulate normal daylight. A very low-wattage bulb turning on during the early early morning can properly increase "daylight" and support Wintertime laying. Avoid unexpected lights 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, thoroughly clean h2o, and calcium health supplements like crushed oyster shell. Limit treats to not more than 10% in their day-to-day diet program.
four. Pressure and Environmental Aspects
Stress is A serious contributor to reduced egg output. As outlined by Damerow, stressors can contain predator threats, overcrowding, bullying, extreme temperatures, or maybe shifting the coop. Hens are delicate to change and might respond by halting egg manufacturing.
What You are able to do: Create a tranquil, Secure natural environment to your birds. Manage steady routines, deliver ample Room, and handle sources of anxiety which include loud noises or aggressive flockmates.
5. Age and Medical issues
Damerow reminds us that laying isn't a lifelong endeavor. Most hens commence laying all-around five–6 months of age, peak at about 1–two years, and after that slowly slow down. Disease, parasites, and reproductive troubles may also interfere with laying.
What You Can Do: Keep watch over your hens’ Over-all health. Conduct typical parasite checks, keep a cleanse coop, and consult with a vet if you discover signs of sickness. Older hens may still be beneficial members from the flock even though their laying days are powering them.
Final Thoughts
As Gail Damerow Fun88 Casino often suggests, “Chickens don’t just stop laying for no reason.” 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 treatment, and many endurance, you will help guidebook your flock back to balanced egg generation—or simply appreciate the purely natural rhythms in their lives.