Chickens not laying

[cluckcluckduck089]

Hi! We have around 15 adult hens who have all suddenly stoped laying. Only a few are molting now and we don’t live somewhere that gets really cold. Our ducks also stopped laying a few weeks ago. Does anyone have any idea about what could be happening. Thanks

 

[OrpingtonManiac]

They often stop laying due to the lower daylight hours, and they could tart moulting soon. Whats their diet?

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's an instinct from when they were feral, before we domesticated them. The days getting shorter means the weather is not going to be good for hatching eggs and raising chicks. So they stop laying eggs when the days get shorter. It has nothing to do with how cold it is likely to get where you are now, it goes back to where they were when their ancestors were feral.

Since their feathers wear out and they will need good feathers during the cold weather they take advantage of the opportunity to molt. They use the nutrition that is no longer going to make eggs to replace their worn out feathers. Again, nothing to do with how cold it might get where you are.

When we domesticated them we bred some of them to lay a lot more eggs and to not go broody as much, along with many other things. Many immature chickens, male and female, no longer molt their first fall/winter. Some pullets continue to lay through their first winter. Some, not all.

With living animals you can always find exceptions to practically anything, even this. But the vast majority of chickens have retained the instinct to stop laying and molt when the days get shorter. That's why commercial operations carefully control the length of days with artificial lighting so the days don't get shorter and throw them into a molt until they need to.

 

[cluckcluckduck089]

They often stop laying due to the lower daylight hours, and they could tart moulting soon. Whats their diet?

They are eating organic layer pellets as well as old food scraps the grocery store gives to us

 

[FrostRanger]

Since they aren't laying, I'd switch to an all flock as the extra calcium in layer feed is bad for birds that aren't laying and the birds molting will need more protein than layer feed provides. Just have oyster shell on the side for any birds who may need it

 

[Ridgerunner]

I personally do not increase the protein content for molting birds. The hens are not making eggs so they have a lot of protein available for feathers. The speed of a molt is based on how fast the feathers fall out, not how fast they grow back. Feeding them higher protein won't affect how fast they fall out, that is controlled by genetics.

It will not hurt the chickens to eat the extra protein though the higher protein feed may cost more. If they do not need the protein they'll poop it out of the back end. I've had people tell me that I don't love my chickens enough if I'm not willing to needlessly spend extra money on them. They are right, I don't love them that much.

There have been studies that show feeding chickens extra calcium when they are not laying can possibly, sometimes, may have a harmful effect. It is not an instantaneous effect, it is an accumulation over time. How much extra calcium they are getting and for how long are important. If they are eating Layer but are foraging for a lot of their food then it is probably not hurting them, at least significantly. I get around this problem by feeding them a low calcium feed and offer oyster shells on the side. The ones that need the calcium for the eggs usually eat enough. The ones that are not laying still need some calcium for body maintenance or bone growth so you may see them eating some but they should not eat enough to harm themselves.

 

[nuthatched]

If you live in the northern hemisphere, they're molting and taking their winter break, it's triggered by less daylight and they'll start laying in spring