15 Reasons Chickens Stop Laying Eggs

Chickens stop laying eggs for so many different reasons you practically have to be Sherlock Holmes to determine the cause. To get you started, here are 15 reasons why hens lay fewer eggs or stop laying altogether.

Wrong Breed

To begin with, you may have the wrong hens. Egg production varies from breed to breed, as well as among individuals and strains within a breed. If you want lots of eggs, you need hens that have been developed specifically for egg production.

Many of the fancy breeds have been developed for their awesome looks, rather than their laying ability. Some of the best layers for a backyard flock are sex link hybrids.

Too Fat

Some hens gradually accumulate fat, especially when they are fed too much grain and similar treats by a well-meaning keeper. By filling the body cavity with fat, obesity significantly impairs a hen’s ability to lay.

Breeds that are known to be cold hardy are especially disposed to obesity because their natural tendency is to put on extra fat for the winter. Where such breeds don’t experience cold winters during which to burn off that excess fat, they just keep accumulating more.

Old Age

All hens gradually lay fewer eggs as they get older. Depending on the breed, pullets start laying at 4 or 5 months of age and reach peak production at 7 or 8 months. From there laying gradually declines until the molt, after which laying resumes.

However, although production gets better than it was just before the molt, it’s not as good as it was during the previous year. A healthy hen will continue this pattern into the age of 10 or 12, laying fewer eggs each year until she may stop laying altogether.

Autumn Molt

As winter approaches, chickens shed their worn feathers and grow a set of new plumage to better keep them warm through cold weather. During the molt, all hens slow down in production. Some chickens don’t lay any eggs at all during the molt.

Since feathers are 85% protein, a hen’s need for dietary protein increases during the molt. An egg is 35% protein, so a hen that isn’t getting sufficient dietary protein may not have enough to continue producing eggs. During the molt, hens appreciate a little supplemental animal protein, such as from mealworms or fly grubs.

Excessive Stress

Low production as a result of an out-of-season molt is a sure sign of stress. Stress itself, with or without an accompanying molt, can cause hens to slow down or stop laying.

A common source of stress occurs when too many chickens are crowded into too small a coop. Stress can also occur when a flock is stalked by predators or tormented by household pets or noisy children. Moving chickens or otherwise handling them more than usual causes stress, as does extremely hot or extremely cold weather.

Heat Stress

Extremely hot weather results in heat stress, because it requires a chicken to use up energy it needs for maintaining good health and producing eggs. A heat stressed chicken drinks more — causing loose, watery droppings — pants, and vibrates its throat muscles (called “gular flutter”) to increase evaporation of warm body moisture into the surrounding air.

Factors that help heat stressed hens include the ability to get out of the sun, the presence of air circulation (if no breeze, then from a fan), and access to plenty of cool drinking water. Despite such measures, heat stress is much more difficult for a chicken to deal with than cold stress.

Cold Stress

The chicken’s naturally high body temperature is especially beneficial in cold weather. When the temperature drops, a chicken’s body speeds up metabolism to keep the bird warm and active.

Cold stressed chickens cover their legs and shiver. Because shivering uses up energy, hens stop laying. Factors that help cold stressed hens include housing that is neither damp nor drafty, adequate nutrition, and sufficient drinking water.

Water Deprivation

A hen’s body contains more than 50% water, and an egg is 65% water. A hen drinks only a little at a time, but drinks often. Dehydration due to lack of water for even a few hours can cause chickens to stop laying eggs.

When the water freezes in winter, egg production will drop. During a hot summer, when laying hens drink up to four times more than usual, they can suffer deprivation if their water supply runs out. Hens will drink more during hot weather when the drinking water is cool, and conversely will drink more in cold weather when the drinking water is warm.

Poor Nutrition

Anything that causes hens to eat less than usual — including insufficient water or excessive stress — causes them to lay less than usual. To pique the appetite of picky eaters, provide feed more often or stir the ration between feedings.

Even if they’re eating well, improper nutrition can cause a drop in laying. Poor nutrition may result from feeding layers starter or grower ration instead of layer ration.

Nutritionally imbalanced rations often result from feeding hens too much scratch grain. Home made chicken feed, and the incorrect use of supplements, are other common causes of nutritional imbalance.

Short Daylight Hours

When the number of daylight hours falls below 14, most hens stop laying until spring. Some chicken keepers are fine with that, reasoning that their hens need the rest. Others of us prefer to keep hens laying by augmenting daylight through the winter.

All it takes is one 40-watt light bulb per 100 square feet of coop space. Add the extra hours of light in the early morning. If light is added in the evening, the coop may suddenly get dark while the hens are still active, causing them the stress of sleeping on the floor.

An automatic timer is handy for maintaining consistent light and dark hours. If you turn the light on and off manually, and you inadvertently miss a day or two, your hens will stop laying and may not resume until spring.

Egg Eaters

Egg eating, a form of cannibalism, is a management problem that usually starts when an egg gets broken in the nest. Broken eggs may result from not providing enough nests or using too little soft nesting material.

An egg eater won’t necessarily come from within your flock. It may be a wily predator, such as a snake, rat, ground squirrel or other wildlife that likes eggs as much as you do. Catching such a critter in the act may require vigilance, for which a motion sensitive camera can come in handy.

Egg Hiders

You may get too few eggs if your hens hide their eggs where you can’t find them. This issue is especially common when hens free-range where they have shrubs to lay under or tall weeds to hide their eggs in.

Providing a sufficient number of properly placed nests will encourage your hens to lay eggs where you want them to. When hens are confined inside the coop until later in the morning, they’ll lay in the nests before being let out to forage.

Broody Hen

Broodiness, or a hen’s instinct to hatch eggs, is triggered by increasing day length. When a hen gets broody, hormonal changes cause her to stop laying. Hens that are bred primarily for egg production don’t typically brood, although occasionally one does. A persistently broody hen is not much use for egg production.

To discourage broodiness, avoid letting eggs accumulate in the nest. If a hen does go broody, repeatedly remove her from the nest. If she insists on returning, move her to different housing, such as a rabbit cage, for a few days.

The longer a hen remains broody, the longer she’ll take to resume laying. A hen that can be discouraged after the first day of broodiness should begin laying within the week. A hen that broods for four days before being stopped may not start laying for another 18 days.

Internal Layer

Occasionally a hen will ovulate a yolk that doesn’t descend through the oviduct, but instead drops into the hen’s body cavity. Under normal circumstances, the hen’s body resorbs the yolk material. If the yolk, or other egg material, repeatedly drops into a hen’s body cavity to the point that she stops laying eggs, she’s known as an internal layer.

One cause of internal laying in high-producing hens is inflammation of the oviduct. It occurs because the muscle separating their cloaca from the vagina tends to be more relaxed, allowing fecal bacteria to migrate into the oviduct. Although the egg accumulation may be surgically removed, typically the oviduct will stop functioning properly, the ovaries atrophy, and the hen’s egg laying days are over.

Poor Health

If you can identify no other reason for a slump in laying, especially when it affects more than one hen, they may be suffering from internal parasites (worms) or external parasites (lice or mites). Also consider the possibility that your chickens are coming down with a disease.

Reduced laying is often the first general sign of disease. Watch for these additional signs: depression, listlessness, loss of appetite, and weight loss. An ailing hen lays fewer eggs, perhaps of irregular shape, with thinner, paler shells and watery whites.

Before jumping to the conclusion that disease is involved, review the more common reasons why chickens stop laying eggs. By identifying the cause, you may be able to resolve the issue through improved management. In some cases, the slump in laying is only temporary, and before you know it your hens will be back in lay.