It storm many the great unwashed to find out that most hens do n’t lay an eggeveryday . Different breedslay nut at different rates , and individuals within a stock can deviate from the norm as they march to the beat of their own biologic drummer .
Regardless of strain , a levelheaded hen lays to her item-by-item potential drop when allow for the necessary resources . Many factor represent a role in egg production , and sure fluctuations are to be expected , but some signal a trouble that should be address .
In this article , I ’ll discuss some of the most common causes of egg - production decline in backyard flocks and offer some possiblesolutions . Bear in mind that several element often occur simultaneously .
1. Water Deprivation
weewee is expect for the organization of testis , as well as to fend for every other metabolic process within a hen . admittance to clean water in uninfected container at all sentence is imperative to sound wellness and bollock yield .
Egg - product decline can occur if a biddy ’s approach islimited physically by frozen piss , if the drinker runs dry or if the piddle is unpalatable because itcontains a bitter medication or it ’s too warm . A hen can be bewilder out of egg yield for weeks if she is refuse water for even a few hours . control access to clean piddle at all time .
2. Improper Diet
Hens ca n’t get orchis optimally for long without a complete , balanced dieting . place hens necessitate more or less 38 food every mean solar day in the ripe forms , concentrations and compounding to be healthy and productive . Certainly hens can survive by serving as the family ’s garbage administration or being lavished with treats every day , but they wo n’t be as healthy as they should be , wo n’t live as long as they could , and their egg output and egg timbre will suffer .
domestic fowl nutritionis a complicated science that requires deliberate sourcing , fixings character control monitoring and careful mixing to guarantee every bite has the same alimental visibility as the next . These are n’t functions the intermediate chicken - keeper can do at home plate . Poultry nutrition is not a recipe one can download from the net .
Thankfully , backyard slew benefit from decades of the intense subject field of poultrynutrition in the commercial industry . Poultry nutritionists know exactly what a hen ’s dieting should contain , and they ensure that each bite a hen take of her level pellets or crumbles is double-dyed and balanced .
Most backyard chicken - keepers buy high - timbre , consummate level provender for their hen only to unknowingly offset the balanced diet . We are adulterate the concluded nutrition with too many dietetic extras that I call “ treat . ”
delicacy , snacks , scratch , crack corn , table chip and , yes , even healthy foods such as fruit , vegetables , mealworms and supplements ( kelp , wheat germ , flax , seaweed , etc . ) prevent hens from eating the nutrients they need . This causes nutritional imbalances resultingin reduced egg production , at a minimum .
Ahealthy treat is fine from sentence to meter , but throttle treat to no more than two tablespoons per bird a day — occasionally , not every day .
3. Decreased Light
Light is responsible for trigger off a cascadeof hormones inside a biddy ’s torso that causes the release of an ballock yolk ( ova ) from the hen ’s ovary , which then develop into an egg over the next 25 hours . A hen requires 14 to 16 hour of brightness to produce an egg . The minify daylight hours in autumn and wintertime can cause egg product to slow down or cease .
Supplemental light by way of a simple filament of holiday lights or a single 40 - W LED bulb in the coop can promote eggs laying . Despite myths to the contrary , it has no prejudicial effects on hen . A hen without all the necessary imagination to lay egg stops laying eggs regardless of lighting atmospheric condition .
4. Molting
The yearly succession of a hen ’s plume coincides with the regression of a hen ’s generative tract and the deflection of resources away from egg product to feather growth . Decreased daylight length at the ending of summertime signals thebeginning of a moltfor most hen .
While ballock production is slowed to some degree by a molting , chicken keepers can sustain hen nutritionally for four to six calendar week by offering a stark Gallus gallus feed higher in protein than the common layer ration . This supplies the hens with the aminic acids needed to generate new feather quicker .
5. Stress
ball - production decline fall out when laying hens are stress for any rationality . wimp are prey animate being whose survival of the fittest has long bet on a healthy distrust of new things . They dislike variety of any kind .
The most common and obvious changes that can throw them out of production for a time are changes in feed character or shape , tweaks to coop location or layout , moving to a dissimilar yard , and reach or turn a loss spate phallus . Other stressor that can trigger egg - production declension include being harassed by a vulture from outside the chicken coop at night , rodents pestering the birds on the roost at night , and wicked atmospheric condition include extreme cold-blooded or extreme warmth .
Hens adjust to differences in feed , they become well-heeled with a new coop and they forget about last workweek ’s fireworks display before too long . Control the stressors you may , and do n’t worry about the residuum .
6. Age
The first two years of a laying biddy ’s life are her most productive . She naturally repose fewer eggs thereafter . While many hens continue to lay eggs their intact lives , it ’s never at the same rate as in the first two years . Nothing can shift this .
7. Disease, Illness, Injury & Parasites
hen lay eggs to procreate and continue the species , which is a subroutine only a healthy hen can do consistently . An unhealthy hen conserves resources when physically tax , diverting them to survival . Because survival takes precedence over reproduction , testis laying stops when the biddy is challenged . A hen tax by a louse overload or infest with soupcon or lice is n’t focalise on selection of the species .
Check hiss regularly for signs of external parasites . find out for consistently irregular droppings , and get a fecal float test performed by a veterinarian if blood or mucous secretion turns up .
8. Reproductive Dysfunction
Disease or malfunctions of the uterine tube ( alsocalled the reproductive piece of ground ) can retard nut yield . Cancers , tumors and other generative disorder are highly common in set hens .
look for veterinary assist for a hen that has a swollen , spongy , water - balloon - like abdomen or if signs of egg - looking junk are found inside the nest boxes or on droppings boards .
Some conditions can be diagnosed and treated by a vet , but many ca n’t .
9. Broodiness
A broody biddy is one yell by nature to sit on a nest to hatch eggs . The broody biddy stops lay eggs to brood eggs she has already laid , whether they are underneath her in the nest or not .
A broody hen is easily identified . She leaves the nest only once a day to eat , drink and poop . She ordinarily growls or shrieks and puffs out her feather if disturbed . Her presence in the coop can inhale a chain reaction of broodiness among other hen , which reduces the number of nut place by the fold .
A brood hen biddy sitting on hatching orchis should be kick in a secure space aside from the cage so as not to encourage other hens to brood . If hatching eggs is not possible for the hen ( possibly there ’s no rooster in the flock ) , take her out from the coop to discourage dwell as soon as you notice the behavior .
As long as the members of your mickle have all the imagination they need to be sizeable , they will be as fat as they are opine to be . Hopefully , this information will aid you to anticipate normal egg production wavering and also assist you recognize when aegg - production declineis triggered by a job that requires your attention .
Sidebar:Wanted—Missing Eggs
Sometimes perceived egg - production downslope is n’t a decline at all . The eggs are being laid , but they ’re missing .
Egg Hiding
Free - mountain range or grazing land - lift hens might develop the unwelcome wont of lay eggs outside the coop in reclusive locations . Hens have been know to disappear for weeks and return to the flock with baby chick in towage . Confining the raft to the hencoop and break away until midday for a dyad of weeks ordinarily eliminates this behavior .
Egg Eating
Everyone have a go at it refreshed eggs , include chickens . Hens often begin eating eggs when they get word a humiliated nut in a nest box . Once a chicken gets a taste , it becomes unmanageable to quit intentional egg breakage and feeding .
Egg Stealing
Sometimes fewer bollock is attributable to theft by marauder such as git , serpent or opossums . Be trusted your chicken coop is dependable and unassailable .
This narrative originally appeared in the January / February 2019 issue ofChickensmagazine .
