Major 5 Reasons Your Hens End Laying – Described by Gail Damerow
Major 5 Reasons Your Hens End Laying – Described by Gail Damerow
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Just about every backyard chicken keeper has seasoned it: someday, your hens are laying reliably, and another, the nesting packing containers are mysteriously vacant. Based on Gail Damerow, renowned poultry specialist and writer of Storey’s Information to Increasing Chickens, this egg-laying pause is usually not a mystery in any respect. You can find obvious, normal motives hens end laying, and comprehension them may help you assist your flock and restore productiveness. Allow me to share 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 a annually occasion in a hen’s everyday living, commonly taking place in late summer to early slide. In the course of this time, hens shed and regrow feathers—a system that requires an amazing volume of Power and protein. Egg output usually stops during this period, as the hen's human 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. Stay away from stressing the flock and Enable nature just take its class. 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 will need fourteen–sixteen hours of daylight for steady laying. As daylight decreases in the fall and Winter season months, so does egg generation.
What You are able to do: Consider including a light-weight supply while in the coop that has a timer to simulate purely natural daylight. A reduced-wattage bulb turning on inside the early morning can securely lengthen "daylight" and help Winter season laying. Stay away from sudden lighting modifications that might tension your birds.
3. Fun88 Casino Poor Nourishment
Nourishment is foundational to egg generation. Damerow warns that feeding chickens a eating plan missing in protein, calcium, or vital nutritional vitamins may end up in fewer or no eggs. Treats and scratch grains, while fun, can dilute the well balanced diet provided by commercial layer feed.
What You are able to do: Assure your flock has consistent entry to high-quality layer feed, cleanse drinking water, and calcium supplements like crushed oyster shell. Restrict treats to no more than ten% of their every day food plan.
4. Tension and Environmental Things
Strain is A significant contributor to lessened egg creation. In accordance with Damerow, stressors can include predator threats, overcrowding, bullying, Serious temperatures, and even going the coop. Hens are sensitive to vary and can respond by halting egg production.
What You Can Do: Make a relaxed, Harmless setting for your birds. Keep consistent routines, give enough Area, and tackle resources of tension for instance loud noises or intense flockmates.
5. Age and Health problems
Damerow reminds us that laying is just not a lifelong endeavor. Most hens start laying all around five–six months of age, peak at about one–2 a long time, after which you can steadily slow down. Disease, parasites, and reproductive challenges may also interfere with laying.
What You Can Do: Keep watch over your hens’ Over-all health and fitness. Conduct normal parasite checks, sustain 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 when their laying days are behind them.
Final Thoughts
As Gail Damerow often says, “Chickens don’t just stop laying for no reason.” If your hens have a split, it’s their means of signaling that one thing 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 value the purely natural rhythms in their lives.