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 backyard chicken keeper has professional 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. There are distinct, all-natural factors hens stop laying, and understanding them can help you aid your flock and restore efficiency. Here i will discuss Damerow’s top rated five factors hens stop laying—and what you are able to do about them.
1. Molting: A Natural Pause
As Damerow clarifies, molting can be a yearly party in the hen’s existence, typically transpiring in late summer season to early fall. All through this time, hens get rid of and regrow feathers—a procedure that needs a tremendous degree of Strength and protein. Egg production generally stops throughout this era, because the hen's overall body focuses completely on feather regeneration.
What You are able to do: Support your hens by using a high-protein feed or snacks like mealworms and scrambled eggs. Keep away from stressing the flock and Enable nature acquire its course. After the molt is entire, egg-laying ought to little by little resume.
two. Shortened Daylight Hours
Mild exposure performs a significant role in stimulating a hen’s reproductive program. Damerow factors out that hens have to have 14–16 hours of daylight for regular laying. As daylight decreases in the autumn and Wintertime months, so does egg output.
What You are able to do: Think about including a light-weight supply while in the coop that has a timer to simulate natural daylight. A reduced-wattage bulb turning on inside the early morning can securely lengthen "daylight" and help winter laying. Stay away from sudden lighting modifications that might stress your birds.
three. Weak Nourishment
Nourishment is foundational to egg generation. Damerow warns that feeding chickens a diet regime lacking in protein, calcium, or crucial vitamins can lead to fewer or no eggs. Treats and scratch grains, though enjoyment, can dilute the well balanced nutrition provided by professional layer feed.
What You Can Do: Make certain your flock has continuous usage of significant-excellent layer feed, clear water, and calcium nutritional supplements like crushed oyster shell. Limit treats to no more than ten% of their day by day diet regime.
4. Strain and Environmental Variables
Tension is An important contributor to lowered egg production. In keeping with Damerow, stressors can incorporate predator threats, overcrowding, bullying, Intense temperatures, or simply relocating the coop. Hens are delicate to change and might react by halting egg creation.
What You are able to do: Produce a quiet, Fun88 Casino Protected environment on your birds. Maintain regular routines, provide sufficient Place, and address sources of strain like loud noises or aggressive flockmates.
five. Age and Health concerns
Damerow reminds us that laying is not a lifelong endeavor. Most hens start off laying around 5–6 months of age, peak at about 1–two decades, and after that slowly decelerate. Illness, parasites, and reproductive problems could also interfere with laying.
What You are able to do: Regulate your hens’ overall well being. Carry out standard parasite checks, retain a clean up coop, and consult a vet should you recognize signs of disease. Older hens should still be useful associates in the flock whether or not their laying times are driving them.
Ultimate Ideas
As Gail Damerow usually states, “Chickens don’t just cease laying for no cause.” Should your hens take a crack, it’s their technique for signaling that a little something inside their natural environment or biology has shifted. With a little observation, very good care, and some tolerance, you may help information your flock back to healthy egg output—or just enjoy the all-natural rhythms in their lives.