When your chickens give up laying eggs , it can be a real enigma and a huge bummer at breakfast time . testis yield in your flock can decrease for a number of rationality . In this clause , we ’ll explore why it is you suddenly are n’t getting any eggs from your shuttlecock .
Why your chickens stop laying eggs
The tough thing about hear to figure out why your chicken lay off repose eggs is your unfitness to just ask them why . Would n’t that be nice if they could just let us know the intellect ? Because of this , we have to trouble-shoot our birds to get to the bottom of what ’s causing their sudden drop curtain in egg put . In my 10 + years of experience with raising chicken for their ball , I ’ve found that there are 12 common reasons why chicken stop repose eggs . I ’ve listed them below in order of most likely ( in my experience ) to least likely reason .
Insufficient daylight
Chicken ovulation is driven by the same hardening of factors as in other beast , including humans : hormones . These chicken internal secretion are regulated by daytime . During the shorter days of fall and winter , the reduced daylight signal to the Gallus gallus that it ’s clip to finish position eggs and residual for the winter . It give your hard - working hens a break , and also serves an evolutionary mental process : wench need warmth to hold out , and chicks that are hatched during the wintertime are far more probable to expire from the element .
Chickens need at least 12 hours of daylight in edict to bring forth the internal secretion that tell their bodies to set eggs . They perform good at 14 - 16 hours of daylight every mean solar day . Depending on where you are place , the amount of day you receive can drop to as low as 8 or 9 hours per Clarence Day during the winter . you may get your hens laying again by providing a full spectrum light in their chicken coop to make up the lost 60 minutes . So if there are only 10 hours of daytime in a day , you ’ll want to supplement them for an additional 2 - 4 hour in the former morning or at night .
A few Book of caveat though : there are ways to mess up this up . recall to only use calorie-free bulbs thatrun at a cooler temperature , like LEDs . If a hot lightbulb gets knock to the land , it can ignite the bedding inside of your chicken henhouse . This is a existent veneration – I ’ve seen neighbors ’ chicken hencoop go up in flames during the wintertime , killing everyone at bottom . It ’s a terrible loss . Also , be sure to turn off the light after a few 60 minutes to give your chickens darkness . They need to be able-bodied torestin complete darkness !
Molting
Toward the end of summer to the beginning of pin , your chickens will begin what ’s called their yearly molt . This one is pretty real to me , as my chicken are actually decease through their molt aright now and I ’m getting no eggs as a resultant role . The annual molt is a period in which your birds shed some of their old plume and turn new ones . It ’s a process that has no equivalence to us world – the accent their bodies undergo to do this is unimaginable .
During their annual moult , chickens put a great business deal of energy and protein into growing new feathers . While the unexampled feathers are turn in , most chickens end laying testis . molting can last anywhere from a couple of weeks to as foresighted as 4 calendar month , depending on the strain . Do n’t seek to do anything to force your chickens to start laying again during this time . Let them have full hour of shadow at dark and provide lots of sizable treat to your wench to support them .
Old Age
There is another factor for rock-bottom egg place that all wimp will eventually experience : honest-to-god age . A chicken ’s most productive bollock - put down time is during its first year of sprightliness . After that , their product begins to drop off more and more every year . By the time a chicken is 7 - 10 days old , she will lay sometimes not even one egg per week . If your flock has aged beyond 3 years , it is likely their years that ’s have your chickens to not pose many , or any eggs .
Dirty coop conditions
Chickens nuzzle and repose eggs not because they desire us to have a nutritious breakfast , but because they want to think up and raise chicks . Chickens will instinctively forefend heavily soiled area for testis put down , and if none are usable , they might stop entirely , or nibble a locating that you might not be able to easy find . Keeping the nest boxes and coops fresh by regularly take out old , dirty litter is cardinal to healthy , laying hens .
Predator pressure
get ’s get one thing directly : while we world like our chicken to lay egg to allow a nutrient breakfast , chickens want to lay eggs for procreate . That ’s their biologic movement . That drive can be interrupted if your mountain does n’t finger good . If they are n’t in an environment that they finger is good to kindle their young , they wo n’t bother expend the free energy . One of the direction they feel unsafe is excessive predator air pressure .
piranha pressure is the pressure your great deal feel when a predator is near . And recall , animals at your home that are friend to you may not seem so well-disposed to a hen . Dogs , qat , and other common household brute can be seen as a threat to their well - being . Your hen need a overnice , secure chicken tally and chicken coop to feel safe and secure . They need a benighted , confined quad like a nest box to lay their eggs . If your Gallus gallus are out in the undetermined being hassle by marauder , they may decide that testis are off the menu .
Excessive breeding
Hens lay testicle in guild to procreate , and having a rooster around is a key factor in that process . Your biddy wo n’t take care the presence of a cock , and in fact will usually follow him from place to grade around their poulet trial . He works hard to provide safety , security system , and even nutrient to his hatful . But roosters are all too glad to twin with the hens in their mass , and if there are n’t enough hens , he may breed with them excessively .
exuberant breeding is a problem because it can leave your hens stressed , hurt , and feeling unsafe . A biddy who has been harassed by a cock may feel like hiding or else of feeding , dust bathe , and otherwise enjoying her sprightliness . It ’s another ground why chickens stop lay egg .
A sure sign that your hen is being over - mate with is a bald-pated spot on the back of her question . Roosters will typically hold onto these feathers while mounting a hen . If those feathers are all cash in one’s chips , it ’s a preindication she ’s being mated too much .
Extreme heat
When it ’s very hot out of doors , I know I for one do n’t feel like doing anything . I just require to lie around and stay out of the heat . The same goes for our chickens . They really ca n’t handle extremely red-hot atmospheric condition . They are at their best when temperatures run from about 60 to 80 degree . At 90 degree Fahrenheit , they may stop laying eggs due to the stress of extreme heat . If it ’s over 100 point , it ’s passing likely you wo n’t get any eggs at all .
There ’s not a lot you may do about the passion . It ’s not on the dot practical to give your chicken an melody conditioner , ripe ? The best affair you’re able to do is wait it out . Make trusted there ’s plenty of ventilation in the coop and add a fan if it ’s specially stifling in there .
Dehydration
If your chicken were briefly without access to water , that can cause a significant break to their egg product . Eggs are about 74 % water by weightiness . To produce an eggs , a crybaby needs to fill each egg with around 44 grams of water , which is about 10 % of the urine she will drink in a day . That ’s a lot of numbers and percentage , but it boil down to this : if your volaille suddenly is n’t getting any weewee , she will disport water off from egg production and toward organ function that keeps her active . If your chickens were dehydrated for a dangerously long time , they may require a few days to go back before they commence lay eggs again .
Malnutrition or hunger
Insufficient food is another reason why crybaby stop laying eggs . In the same way that a hen with circumscribed access to water conserve water supply to make it , a hen with circumscribed access to food will economize vigour to hold up . One way they do this is by slowing their own egg production . If your chickens ran out of food for a while and stopped lay as a outcome , it may take a few days before they start again .
Malnutrition is another issue . If their nutrient does n’t plunk for their nutritional needs for testis laying , they may stop . A good constituent egg bed provender should be at least 16 % protein and 3.5 % calcium . Check to be sure that the feed you ’re providing your hens is tolerable for egg put down .
Your hens are broody
Chickens stop lay eggs when they instinctively desire to sit on a nest . If your hen are suddenly glued to their egg and pecking at you any clip you endeavor to pull together said eggs , congratulations , you have a ruminative hen ! A broody hen is one whose mothering instincts have fully kick in . The only thing that she wants to do is sit on eggs and hatch them . When a hen goes contemplative , she will typically not lay any more eggs , as her body thinks that she has a full nest and should n’t endeavor to produce more testicle .
There are tricks to break a broody hen of her broodiness . you could set her away in a disjoined penitentiary that does n’t have a nest corner , which may break her of her sitting instinct and get her back to normal again . You may also attempt to very frequently collect egg so that none are ever in the nest box , which may convince her that now is not the time to be sit on eggs .
Another option is to provide her with somefertile eggsto sit down on . If you ’re thinking of expanding your flock , you may have a broody biddy do the work for you ! It ’s also possible to give a broody biddy her own bird to raise that youincubated at homeor purchase , but there ’s no guaranty that the hen will bond with the chicks , so be ready to upgrade them in a brooder yourself .
You’ve introduced new hens
There ’s a common thread through a few of the bullet points listed in this article : focus . There ’s strain from vulture , stress from molting , focus from estrus , and so on . While chickens are passing social animal who should never be kept alone , they can also stress each other out . When you add raw chickens to a mint , there ’s a sort of chicken political dislocation that happens .
The pecking orderliness of your flock is carefully defend through social interactions . Every chicken has their place in the pecking order . Periodically , your birds will dispute each other to move up in the pecking order , but these brief encounter do n’t usually cause pregnant stress to your shuttlecock and wo n’t affect bollock lay . But if you have , for example , 12 hens , and you decide to add 4 more hens , suddenly those 4 hens postulate to image out where they fit into the pecking order . The new hens may render to send themselves at the top of the pecking order , and the sudden commotion of the pecking order may cause hens that are already familiar with one another to crusade and jockey for a higher position in the social club .
All of the fight can result in hurt and death at worst , and stress at the very least . That tenseness may lead in them pause bollock laying . keep an eye on your hens carefully during this full point for any injuries that call for discourse , but otherwise , be patient and let your biddy work out their novel pecking lodge . This procedure usually takes 1 - 3 weeks to complete .
Parasitic infection
Parasitic transmission is another reason your hen may have stopped laying ball , but it ’s not exactly the most common understanding , especially since leech lean to become apparent well before egg laying layover , giving most poulet keepers the opportunity to address the problem betimes . The most common parasites that make Gallus gallus end laying egg are insect and pinch .
tinge and lice live on the cutis of your chicken and feed on their blood . If an infestation becomes bad enough , your chickens may become anemic and not have the nutritional resources necessary to produce egg . There are quite a few symptom of pinch in chicken , like on the spur of the moment very dirty vent feathering , decreased activity , not eat food , feathering tear when not molting , and bald spots . When you split the feathers of your chicken , you may notice marked-up residues and modest bugs fawn around your birds . That , in all likeliness , is either mites or lice .
When lice or mites are receive on your chickens , the intact muckle and chicken coop need to be treated . There are some who swear by herbal remedy , but these are not proven to mold . If a crybaby is sternly infest , a firedog flea dip or flea shampoo may supply some contiguous , but impermanent backup . We advocate purchasing a commercial anti - mite production . We do n’t have a finical one we endorse , but we do suggest speaking to a local veterinarian . These product are typically sold over the counter at feed stores .
Bacterial infection
Several bacteria get an lighting of your biddy ’s oviduct , a shape called Salpingitis . Mycoplasma gallisepticum , Escherichia coli , Salmonella or Pasteurella multocida are the typical bacteria that cause this condition . When a hen is hurt from Salpingitis , she will stop laying eggs and begin laying “ cilium eggs . ” Lash eggs are n’t eggs , but are somewhat bollock - shaped balls of dead tissue , definitely not something you need to eat .
If your crybaby are suffer from a bacterial infection causing Salpingitis , intervention from a veterinarian is probably require . They may be able to offer antibiotics that will handle the entire flock . Over - the - tabulator antibiotics for chickens may not amply turn to this transmission .
