20 REASONS WHY CHICKENS STOP LAYING EGGS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP THEM
20 reasons why chickens stop laying eggs and how you can help them
There are many reasons why the number of families raising chickens is increasing, but for every chicken farmer, providing fresh eggs regularly is one of the benefits. When the supply was stopped, they wanted to know why.
Why do chickens stop laying eggs and what can you do to help? There are many reasons why chicken production slows down or stops. They have to do with her lifestyle, his overall health, his community and his environment. Fortunately, for anything, there are simple methods or techniques you can try to help bring things back.
It doesn’t matter if eggs are the main reason you raise chickens; whether you grow eggs to provide for your family or to supplement your income. When your hen stops laying eggs, it is a sign that something is wrong. Understanding the cause and fixing the problem is important for your pet’s well-being.
20 reasons why chickens stop laying and what to do about them
There are many things that can cause chickens to become infertile or stop laying eggs altogether, but ultimately, they all stem from one of these four problems. Some of them have easy solutions while others are a normal part of a chicken’s life. Knowing how to identify the ones you can fix can help ensure you are taking good care of your chickens.
There are certain things in a hen’s life that will cause her to stop laying eggs. Various factors affecting their general health condition may also be the cause of interruption or cessation. Chickens are sensitive to the social life of their flock and their environment, which can affect egg laying. In this article, we will discuss specific lifestyle, environmental, health and community factors that can prevent chickens from laying eggs. For each reason, we will consider what you can do – if anything – to solve the problem or to make the process of making the chicken return to its work.
1. Breeds
Before you worry about the benefits of chicken production, it is important to know what to expect from the type of chicken it is. Some species are large, while others are small.
The Plymouth Barred, Golden Comet, and Rhode Island Red are all chicken breeds that can produce more than 250 eggs per year during their peak years. Other top breeders include breeds such as Buff Orpingtons, Sexlinks and White Leghorns.
In contrast, Ameraucanas and Silkies should produce less than 100 eggs per year. Dominiques is another type that makes the eggs smaller. The Jersey Giant is a hybrid breed that produces few eggs and grows young, making it ideal for farmers looking for both eggs and meat. Nothing can be done to make Silki as productive as Plymouth Barred Stone.
If you are not happy with the performance of your flock, the only thing you can do is increase it or replace it with more productive chickens.
2. Age
The exact age at which a hen will start laying, and the age at which she will stop laying, will vary from breed to breed. Every chicken will be at the end of its life either young or old enough to lay eggs. If your hen is less than a year old, you’ll want to know if she’s started laying eggs before worrying that she’s stopped laying eggs. If you keep a lot of chickens, it can be difficult to keep a layer. It is very easy to mistakenly say that it is one of the young people who are not there that it is someone else’s work.
As chickens age, their productivity declines at an unexpected rate. The first year of chicken farming will be the best. Each year after that, his number will decrease by 10 to 15 percent until, by age 10, he maintains less than 20 percent of what he did as a young chicken. There isn’t much you can do to combat a declining chicken production
Taking good care of her will allow her to do his best for the rest of his life, but you won’t take his productivity back. If you treat your chickens as pets, sometimes each of them will be ready for a chicken retirement home. If your flock is rich, then you have to decide when the hen goes from the producer to the meat destined for the freezer.
3. Molting
Between 15 and 18 months, the hen enters her first stage. Its feathers will fall to make room for new feather growth. It will be an annual event for the rest of his life. Chickens do not lay eggs when they are laying eggs. There is nothing you can do to change that; It’s just the truth about chickens. The good news is that most chickens go into the fall and early winter. This coincides with the time of year when their productivity will be down for other reasons. Unless you plan to raise your chickens to produce a working light, autumn and winter waste can happen at the same time.
4. Broody Hens
A broiler chicken is a mother hen in “mommy mode”. If you’re ready to expand your flock by raising chicks, then brooder hens are a blessing and a bargain for a few weeks worth of eggs. If you don’t want to expand your flock, you can take steps to prevent or stop brooding.
Signs of a broody hen include spending all day in the nest box, laying or gathering eggs, becoming territorial, and even removing the breast tissue to provide more heat to incubate the eggs. There is no sure way that a hen will “lay her eggs,” and there is no sure way to prevent a hen from disappearing.
One of the best ways to prevent a hen from becoming broody is to collect eggs regularly so she doesn’t collect or lay clutch. Sometimes chickens get broody despite your best efforts. You can trick them by lowering their body temperature. One way to do this is to replace their eggs with a bag of frozen vegetables.
Chickens do not lay eggs when they are broody. If you don’t want to spread out your flock, you may want to prevent or stop this behavior so that they start laying regularly. If you let a hen lay her eggs, expect her to worry about motherhood for the three weeks it takes to lay the egg and another five to ten weeks to raise her young.
5. Diet
One of the most common reasons why a hen stops laying eggs is a problem with her diet. If you have changed your flock’s diet recently – even the type of diet that can be changed – then there is a good chance that this is the cause of egg dropping. A hen needs 20 grams of protein per day to continue laying eggs. Feeding your flock “layer pellets” is the best way to ensure that everyone is getting the protein they need to be productive. If you are feeding layer pellets and getting less money, you should ask yourself if other factors can cause the failure.
One way to supplement the protein your girls get from using chicken pellets is to feed them a high-quality food such as pumpkin seeds, oats.
6. Water/Dehydration
Sometimes, the line between watering enough to lay down and drying out enough to stop laying altogether can be a very fine line. This is especially true when the temperature is high during the hottest summer months.
Even if you provide your flock with clean, pure drinking water, it is possible that the chickens are dehydrated. It’s not uncommon for alpha hens to deny submissive hens access to water. It is her way of enforcing the rules of gathering together and maybe even trying to force the hen to submit to the flock.
Adding extra water is one way to ensure that stressed hens don’t stop producing eggs.
7. Too many treats
If you feed your flock with bread, scraps, or other foods, they may become full of these foods and not eat the high-quality, protein-rich foods that you provide. give him to his manger.
When this is the case, you will likely see a decrease in egg production rather than a complete cessation. If you do this, make sure the girls clean their plates before serving them dessert.
8. Fatigue
The growth of chickens makes them more productive during the summer months. This is also the time of year when extreme heat affects their strength and dehydration can occur.
When you consider all these factors, it is not surprising that many hens experience a period of fatigue during the summer or early fall. Rest time is important for their ability to regain optimal health and vitality.
In fact, this time of year can coincide with the time when the chickens are laying. It can also lead to reduced productivity that comes with the shorter days of the winter months.
Everyone who raises chickens must decide for himself how best to take care of his flock throughout the year.
9. Egg binding
It’s not common, but one reason why chickens stop laying eggs may be because the eggs are stuck to them. This can happen because the egg is not formed regularly, because the hen’s waist is too narrow, or because of a lack of calcium. If a hen can’t lay eggs, it can kill her. When this happens, you have to act quickly.
Sometimes oil is all you need to give your chicken the help it needs. It may also help to soak the chicken in warm water to help its muscles relax. If none of these solutions work, you should seek help from a veterinarian. The doctor may also prescribe calcium supplements to prevent further clotting.
10.Diseases and parasites
There are many diseases that can affect your flock. Bird flu is his biggest concern because it can easily wipe out flocks and spread to humans. There are also many parasites that can stress your flock. The most popular one is lice and mites.
Unfortunately, disease or parasites can prevent your flock from laying eggs. The best way to avoid getting lost for any reason is to pay close attention to your flock.
Look and listen for signs of respiratory illness to detect them early. Inspect each bird carefully for signs of pests and parasites so you can treat them before they cause problems for the bird.
If respiratory disease affects your flock, it may be necessary to cull part of the flock to prevent the disease from spreading. If you catch it early, separation may be an option.
For pest you will want to eliminate them from the coop and remove them from each bird.
11. Rooster
One rooster can take care of a flock of 12 to 18 hens. If your flock is smaller than this, your rooster may be paying too much attention to your hen. This can inhibit their egg production.
If some or all of your hens are missing feathers on their backs and necks, it’s a sure sign that your rooster is over mounting them. If these chickens stop laying eggs, you will need to do something to get things back on track.
The easiest way to solve the problem is to increase the number of your flock. If you can’t do this or don’t want to, you’ll want to consider whether to remove the rooster or separate it from the flock. Any of these methods can disrupt the normal structure of the flock, which can cause stress and production problems.
12. Move, major changes and other disruptions
Any significant change in the flock schedule can lead to a significant reduction in laying. One of the most common sources of disturbance is moving the coop, running, or changing other important elements of the flock environment. If you need to make changes to the flock’s environment that will disrupt their routine, you must do everything possible to minimize the impact of these changes. The only thing that can turn things back is time. Once the hens have been rehabilitated to their normal, laying activity should return.
1 3. Changes in the pecking order
Sometimes it doesn’t take a big change like moving. Something as simple as a change in pecking can disrupt the entire flock’s laying process.
pecking can be broken when you add or remove members. Sometimes pecking change for reasons that have nothing to do with you and everything to do with the relationship of the herd.
Just as there are movements or other significant changes that are imposed on the flock from the outside, internal changes that cause disturbances in laying eggs can resolve over time. When the flock moves, it will start they will go back to laying normal.
14. Bullying
We briefly touched on bullying in our discussion of dehydration. One of the most common forms of abuse in a flock occurs when the alpha hen decides not to allow the subordinate hen access to the water hole, feeder, coop, or whatever he wants. will use to show his power.
Roosters are social birds that establish status. This is true for all chickens. But chickens are also intelligent birds, and each one has a unique personality. It is entirely possible to use an alpha chicken to make it stand out. If the alpha hen in your flock is a bully, it can make the other hens unhappy. This can have a negative effect on egg production.
15. Light
Chickens need 16 hours of daylight to maintain a high level of activity which is laying eggs. When the seasons change and the days get shorter, chickens often adopt a routine that emphasizes resting and recharging. This shift sees them move from peak production to rework and periods of less labor.
Some farmers prefer to let their flock follow their songs. Others prefer to use artificial light in the coop to make the 16-hour day stimulate the stage of putting activities closer to spring and summer.
16. Stress
If the neighbor’s dog or wild animal spends a lot of time near the house, it can stress the chicken. We have already mentioned bacteria as a stressor. Whether the source is physical or psychological, chickens do not respond well to stress. When they have problems controlling stress, you will be able to recognize by the reduction of your eggs.
17. Empty feeder
If you need more proof that chickens are stressed out over small problems, leave your flock feed empty. Chickens want to know that they have enough food for tomorrow, even after they have eaten. This is one of the most stressful things that can affect a chicken coop, but it also affects almost any flock.
18. A dirty nest box
If you don’t clean your nest boxes regularly, your flock will show their displeasure by refusing to use them. They may hide their eggs, place them in unexpected places around the garden, or stop laying them altogether. The only thing you have to trust is that they will not put anything in the nest box!
19. Overcrowding
Chickens don’t need a lot of space, but they do want to be comfortable or their productivity will suffer.
For birds that have space, you need to make sure that they have 3 or 4 square holes in the coop. Since they spend most of their days outdoors, they will only need enough space to allow them to sleep well.
For birds that flock together, you should provide about 10 meters of space for each bird to ensure that everyone in the flock has enough space to be comfortable and productive. If space is an issue for your flock, you may want to increase the amount of space by expanding your coop or building a new one, or reduce the number of chickens in your flock.
20. Extreme Heat/cold
We talked about high temperatures in our discussion about dehydration. In addition to making sure the flock has plenty of water, you’ll also want to make sure the coop has adequate ventilation.
When the temperature is high, you will want to do what you can to keep the flock comfortable. Sometimes, everything you do is not enough, you just have to wait until the temperature drops and things will go back to normal.
One thing you can do to keep your flock happy when the temperature is high is to give them a frozen fruit treat that will help them cool down. It may not make a big difference in whether they sew or not, but it will help them be in a better mood.
Winter is already a productive time of year for laying eggs. When the temperature drops to a very low level, the installation can stop completely.
If you live in a country where the temperature drops during the winter, it is important to insulate your chicken coop during the winter. If you are using artificial lighting to create an extra hour of daylight for the coop, this can be an additional light source. If the coop is installed, it will retain the heat of the flock. Just as frozen fruit treats heatstroke, you can help your flock by providing them with warm food during the cold season. Hot oatmeal is a choice that almost always goes well. Conclusion
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