Most of us keep chickens on the homestead for eggs which we can use to make an omelette or scrambled eggs for breakfast. I have already covered how to choose egg laying hens, in an earlier post. You can refer to that for more information. Today let us take a look at 4 common reasons why your chickens may stop laying eggs.

In order to pin point the exact problem, simply use a process of elimination. With the list below, in hand just check off each one by one, and you should be able to identify the problem. Sometimes, it maybe another reason not listed below, in which case you have to do some further research and investigation.

4 Reasons Why Your Chickens Stop Laying Eggs — .

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1. Predators

When your chickens are under stress, they often reduce the number of eggs they lay per day. Stress can be caused by various things. In most cases, it may be that a predator is trying to enter their coop usually at night. Check to see if there is anything trying to burrow into your chicken coop.

2. New Chickens

Sometimes when you introduce new chickens or hens to your coop, you may notice a reduction in the number of eggs. The reason is that chickens are protective over their nesting boxes, and may get stressed if another new chicken is hanging around their nesting box. The best way to deal with this, is to separate your chickens, until they get comfortable with each other.

3. Low Calcium

The calcium required for egg production, comes mainly from the oyster shells in the chicken feed. If your chickens are calcium deficient, you will notice that their egg production will slow down as well. Make sure that your chicken feed has all the nutrients required by your egg laying hens.

4. Molting

During the molting period, the chickens stop laying eggs. This is because the protein that is usually set aside for laying eggs is being redirected to take care of their current molting situation. They need the protein to regrow new feathers. To counteract this, you can increase the amount of protein in their feed.

There you have it, there is no need to panic if your chickens stop laying eggs. It is usually something that is easy to rectify, once you know what the issue is. I remember once when we added new chickens to our coop, I noticed a decline in the eggs being laid until I separated the girls and everything returned back to normal.

You can get more information from the Fresh Eggs Daily blog, here…