If your hens have instantly stopped laying eggs, you are not alone—and there’s generally a good motive behind it. According to Gail Damerow, revered poultry expert and writer on the Rooster Health Handbook and Storey’s Guidebook to Elevating Chickens, egg-laying is a fancy system affected by a number of environmental, biological, and nutritional elements. Here's the highest five reasons your hens may stop laying, as stated by Damerow, along with simple guidelines to help you your flock get back heading in the right direction.

1. Molting Time
Molting is often a organic system the place chickens shed outdated feathers and develop new types. Damerow emphasizes that molting usually happens once a year, normally in late summer or drop, and it requires a tremendous number of Power. All through this time, hens frequently pause egg generation to preserve nutrients for feather regrowth.

What to do: Be patient and provide excess protein (like mealworms or significant-protein feed) to support the molting method. The moment your hens are concluded molting, egg manufacturing need to resume.

two. Lessened Daylight
Chickens are extremely attentive to gentle. In keeping with Damerow, hens require at the very least 14 to 16 hrs of daylight to sustain standard laying. As daylight hrs shorten in slide and Winter season, hens Obviously cut down or stop laying altogether.

How to proceed: You can supplement with artificial lights during the coop in the darker months. Utilize a very low-watt bulb over a timer to simulate a longer day, but steer clear of excessive lights, that may strain the birds.

3. Inadequate Nutrition
Diet is Probably the most overlooked explanations for lessened egg generation. Nhà Cái Fun88 Damerow warns that even tiny imbalances inside a hen’s diet—like much too very little calcium, protein, or crucial vitamins—may lead to a apparent drop in laying.

How to proceed: Make sure your hens have usage of a whole layer feed, together with clean up drinking water, oyster shells for calcium, and occasional fresh new greens or kitchen scraps. Avoid overfeeding treats or scratch grains, which dilute the nutritional price in their diet regime.

four. Pressure and Environmental Changes
Pressure features a immediate influence on a hen’s reproductive cycle. Damerow notes that sudden improvements—such as a predator attack, new flock users, coop relocation, or Severe weather conditions—may cause hens to prevent laying.

How to proceed: Minimize disruptions and keep a relaxed, constant natural environment. Give new birds time to integrate bit by bit, and supply lots of Room, perches, and nest bins to lower Opposition and stress.

five. Age and Health concerns
As hens age, their egg production By natural means declines. Damerow points out that a lot of hens arrive at peak laying around 18 to 24 months and steadily taper off over the years. Sickness, parasites, or underlying health problems also can interfere with laying.

What to do: Check older hens for signs of illness, and consider regular well being checks. Whilst more mature hens may well not lay as generally, they however lead to flock dynamics and may Reside pleased, healthy life.

Closing Ideas
As Gail Damerow wisely advises, egg-laying is not pretty much biology—it’s about harmony. When your hens stop laying, it’s ordinarily their strategy for telling you a thing’s off. With focus to lighting, diet, and care, you can help your flock prosper and maintain those egg baskets whole.