Leading 5 Factors Your Hens Quit Laying – Described by Gail Damerow
Leading 5 Factors Your Hens Quit Laying – Described by Gail Damerow
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Each individual backyard hen keeper has professional it: one day, your hens are laying reliably, and the following, the nesting containers are mysteriously empty. In line with Gail Damerow, renowned poultry pro and author of Storey’s Information to Elevating Chickens, this egg-laying pause is usually not a mystery whatsoever. You'll find obvious, normal causes hens cease laying, and knowing them can assist you help your flock and restore productivity. Here are Damerow’s top 5 motives hens cease laying—and what you can do about them.
one. Molting: A Organic Pause
As Damerow explains, molting is usually a yearly event within a hen’s existence, ordinarily transpiring in late summer time 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 throughout this era, as the hen's overall 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. Keep away from stressing the flock and Enable nature just take its course. After the molt is finish, egg-laying should slowly resume.
two. Shortened Daylight Several hours
Light exposure plays an important job in stimulating a hen’s reproductive method. Damerow factors out that hens need to have 14–16 hrs of daylight for dependable laying. As daylight decreases in the autumn and winter months, so does egg manufacturing.
What You Can Do: Take into account introducing a lightweight resource in the coop having a timer to simulate organic daylight. A lower-wattage bulb turning on from the early early morning can safely and securely prolong "daylight" and guidance Wintertime laying. Stay clear of unexpected lights improvements That may pressure your birds.
3. Inadequate Diet
Nutrition is foundational to egg production. Damerow warns that feeding chickens a diet plan missing in protein, calcium, or critical natural vitamins may lead to less or no eggs. Fun88 Casino Treats and scratch grains, although entertaining, can dilute the balanced nourishment supplied by industrial layer feed.
What You are able to do: Be certain your flock has frequent use of significant-high-quality layer feed, thoroughly clean water, and calcium nutritional supplements like crushed oyster shell. Limit treats to not more than 10% of their each day diet regime.
4. Worry and Environmental Variables
Tension is An important contributor to lowered egg production. In keeping with Damerow, stressors can include things like predator threats, overcrowding, bullying, Severe temperatures, or simply relocating the coop. Hens are delicate to change and will react by halting egg generation.
What You are able to do: Produce a quiet, Protected environment on your birds. Maintain regular routines, provide sufficient House, and address sources of strain like loud noises or aggressive flockmates.
five. Age and Health Issues
Damerow reminds us that laying is not a lifelong endeavor. Most hens start off laying about 5–6 months of age, peak at about one–two decades, after which little by little decelerate. Illness, parasites, and reproductive concerns may interfere with laying.
What You are able to do: Control your hens’ Total wellbeing. Carry out normal parasite checks, preserve a clean up coop, and talk to a vet should you notice signs of health issues. Older hens may still be beneficial customers of your flock even if their laying times are behind them.
Closing Thoughts
As Gail Damerow usually states, “Chickens don’t just end laying for no reason.” Should your hens take a split, it’s their strategy for signaling that something within their natural environment or biology has shifted. With a bit of observation, great care, and a few persistence, you will help manual your flock back again to healthy egg manufacturing—or simply value the normal rhythms of their life.