10 Reasons Why Hens Stop Laying Eggs

10 Reasons Why Hens Stop Laying Eggs
by Alexa Lehr | The Pioneer Chicks | Nov. 25, 2024
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I expect most of my homestead animals to pay for their keep (although, there are certainly some exceptions!). Is it natural for hens to lay eggs? Absolutely! Is it natural for them to lay every day, 365 days out of the year? No. Over the years, I have come to identify both natural and un-natural causes for my hens to stop laying. Laying an egg is a natural part of a hen’s reproductive cycle, and they were created with an in-numerable amount of ova’s (essentially, egg yolks). When a hen stops laying, you should definitely investigate why. These 10 reasons why hens stop laying eggs are ones that I have experienced in my homestead flock and are common indicators of overall flock health.

#1. Molting

Indicators: feather loss, ratty looking birds, most commonly occurs any time between August and November, sometimes will occur in the early spring

Molting is a natural cause for hens to stop laying. Once a hen reaches one year of age, she will molt once a year for the rest of her life. This molting cycle enables the hen to replace her feathers each year, which enhances her health and ensures she is prepared for the winter months. To learn more about when and how hens molt, check out Molting 101.

When a hen molts, she needs to put all her energies into growing new feathers. This means she will stop laying during the period of time it takes for her to loose and re-grow her feathers. Your best layers will molt late and hard and your lazy layers will molt early and have a prolonged molt.

Molting is environmentally triggered. Shorter days, decreasing light, weather, and temperature can all trigger a hen to molt. Molting that occurs outside of the typical fall molt cycle is usually triggered by a change in light, stress, or abnormal temperatures. If you use supplemental light during the winter, you will have to be especially aware of sudden light changes which could cause your hens to molt. Molting in the middle of the winter is not a good idea!

#2. Diet

Indicators: sudden stop in laying with no other indicators, sometimes accompanied with symptoms that indicate a deficiency or excess of a vitamin, mineral, or other dietary element

An insufficient, improperly balanced diet will cause hens to stop laying. Chicken diet rations have been carefully researched and evaluated over the years to provide the essential nutrition a hen needs to produce consistently. These rations do not take into consideration the treats, supplements, forage, and scraps backyard chickens and homestead chickens eat in addition to their daily feed. However, you can still feed your flock a homestead diet without worrying about dietary issues! Check out Feeding Chickens a Homestead Diet and Picking Out a Homestead Poultry Feed.

Both deficiencies of a dietary element and excess of a dietary element can cause a hen to stop laying. Vitamins and minerals are more likely to be deficient whereas carbs, fats, and proteins are more likely to be fed in excess. Here are some vitamin and mineral deficiencies paired with symptoms that relate to laying:

Vitamin Deficiencies:

• A– reduced hatchability, excess blood spots
• D- thin and soft-shelled eggs followed by a drop in laying then a return to laying, excessive calcium deposits on eggshells
• E- reduced hatchability and fertility
• B12- reduced hatchability, abnormal small eggs

Mineral Deficiencies:

• calcium– thin shelled eggs
• potassium– reduced egg production, thin shelled eggs
• salt- sudden drop in laying, small eggs
• manganese– poor laying, thin shelled eggs, reduced hatchability

For more information on an imbalanced diet, check How to Prevent Dietary Imbalances in Chickens. The quality of the feed your hens eat can also affect their laying. Moldy, musty, or old feed can cause a hen to stop laying.

#3. Stress

Indicators: sudden stop in laying, abnormal eggs

Stress can be a hard factor to diagnose when narrowing down why your hens are not laying. Nearly every single one of these 10 reasons can cause stress and make a hen stop laying. Molting can stress the body as it works to regrow feathers. An imbalanced diet causes stress by creating deficiencies or excesses that the body has to balance out. Diseases and parasites stress a chicken’s immune system. Light changes cause stress which causes a hen to stop laying. Even flock dynamics can be stressful and cause a hen to stop laying! For the purpose of this section, let’s just discuss the affects that environmental stress has on how well a hen lays.

Here are some factors that can cause environmental stress:

• predator attacks
• being chasing
• crowded living conditions
• weather

Predator proofing and properly designing your chicken coop can all eliminate un-necessary environmental stress. Teach your chickens to get used to your presence, come when called, or learn how to catch your chickens in a stress-free way to eliminate the stress of being chased. Tell young kids (and sometimes even adults!) not to chase your hens, but rather to act calm and feed the hens treats if they want to handle a chicken.

As for the weather, you can’t very well control the weather! Two common weather stress factors include heat stress and cold stress. You can help your hens deal with both to reduce the affects that the stress has on their health and productivity. Keeping your hens cool during the summer can reduce heat stress as well as monitoring their summer diet. During the winter, check out these ideas for helping your flock deal with cold stress.

#4. Disease

Indicators: diarrhea, droopiness, ruffled feathers, shriveled comb and wattles, weight loss, etc…

Disease is an obvious reason why hens stop laying, but it can be not so obvious to diagnosis! Because of their flock dynamics, chickens don’t like to show that they are ill until they are seriously ailing. However, because fighting a disease or ailment requires energy, a chicken’s body will start shutting down non-essential functions, such as laying. Thus, a stop in laying can be the first symptom of a disease in your hen.

Once you notice that one of your hens has stopped laying, and you have narrowed it down to possibly being an illness, look for other signs of disease. Thinness is always the next symptom I check for if I can see no other external signs of illness.

Monitoring how well your flock is producing can give you clues as to how healthy they are. Thin shelled eggs can be a sign of respiratory issues and poor egg quality is a sign that your hens may be dealing with something that is taking their energy away from reproducing.

Ailments that have to do with the reproductive system can also cause a stop in laying. Hens can have issues with their reproductive organs that will cause them to lay odd eggs, decrease egg production, or stop producing eggs completely. Here are a few reproductive related issues that will cause your hens to stop laying:

• ovary cancer
• fat build up around the reproductive organs
• internal laying
• egg bound

#5. Parasites

Indicators (internal): worms in droppings, worms in eggs, diarrhea, bloody droppings, poop stuck to the vent feathers, weight loss, pale and shriveled comb and wattles

Indicators (external): excessive preening, preening at the legs (scaly leg mites), ratty looking feathers, poop stuck to the vent, pinholes in the feathers, parasite eggs clumped to the base of feathers

Both internal and external parasites will cause your hens to stop laying due to stress and the taxation on the body. If the parasites are not too bad, a hen will continue to lay, however, she will not lay as often or as good quality of eggs. It’s important to constantly be checking your flock for both internal and external parasites so that you can catch the parasites before they cause damage that would halt egg production and create health risks.

External parasites can cause the whole flock to stop laying since they spread quickly. Internal parasites can spread throughout a flock too, just not as fast, so they are more likely to cause individual hens to stop laying.

When you treat your hens for parasites, whether it be external or internal, you will want to make note of any egg withdrawal periods. Even if your hens do start laying again, you may not be able to eat their eggs for a little while. I prefer using natural-based treatments for dealing with parasites in my flock.

#6. Light Changes

Indicators: sudden stop in laying sometimes accompanied by a mild molt, sometimes occurs naturally in the spring, possible if you are using supplemental light during the winter

Chickens are very sensitive to light. In the wild, a chicken’s lifestyle was very closely related to the weather and the amount of light they received at each time of the year. Light triggers reproduction and molting. Longer exposure to light triggers the reproductive cycle. As the exposure to light decreases, it triggers molting and a stop in laying. This fits right in with high spring production and the fall molt. A change in light exposure is also the reason why hens stop laying during the winter.

Light changes that cause a hen to stop laying at an abnormal time are usually related to using supplemental light sources. Northern chicken keepers often use supplemental light during the winter to keep egg production going. However, any sudden changes in that supplemental light can cause the hens to stop laying. It’s important to introduce supplemental light gradually, and to make sure the supplemental light will not suddenly stop in cases such as a power outage.

Power outages, electricity problems, and careless monitoring can all cause the supplemental light to change suddenly. When using supplemental light, try to eliminate the chance of it turning on or off at un-expected times to help prevent this reason why hens stop laying.

#7. Flock Dynamic Changes

Indicators: signs of bullying, hiding, introducing new flock members, death or removal of a flock member

Changes in the flock cause stress due to the complex relationships and social statuses that are present within the flock. Any time new chickens are added or old flock members are removed, a disruption in the pecking order occurs. As new birds move up in the pecking order or when a spot in the pecking order becomes empty (if a bird was removed), there’s some re-establishment that needs to occur.

If the change in flock dynamics was abrupt or is a major change, such as introducing a lot of new chickens, the stress may be enough to cause hens to stop laying. The important part about managing this kind of stress is to get everything back to normal as soon as possible. Practice good integration and introduce everyone slowly to minimize stress. For flock members who get removed, try to minimize any other stress factors at the same time and try to prevent too many birds from being removed all at once.

Bullying can also cause a hen to stop laying. If you can identify the bully, it is best to separate her and allow the hen who was getting bullied to remain with the flock.

#8. Age

Indicators: slow decrease in laying, base off of the hen’s age

As a hen ages, her reproductive system will gradually slow down as well. It’s not because she is running out of ovas to create eggs with, but instead her body is using energy towards keeping the other body systems working properly.

Older hens will also be more susceptible to parasites, diseases, and stress factors. They may be the first ones to stop laying when one of these factors becomes a cause for a decrease in laying. So, while old hens naturally won’t lay as many eggs in a week as young hens, they will also be affected by their environment and surroundings easier. Older hens will slow down in production and may only end up laying one or two eggs in an entire year, even though they still look and remain healthy.

The question then arises of when should a hen be considered ‘old’? Hybrid chicken breeds or breeds developed commercially naturally have a shorter production period. Their lifespan may not be shorter (although in most cases it is), but they will only produce really well for the first 2-3 years of their life. Well bred heritage breeds on the other hand, have a much longer production period. They may not produce as profusely, but they can produce for a much longer period of time. Some heritage breed hens can lay well up until they are 7-8 years old!

Of course, genetics, breeding, family lines, strain, and living conditions all play a role in how long a hen will produce as she ages.

#9. Water Issues

Indicators: decrease in laying, thin shelled eggs

One of the first decreases-egg-laying lessons I learned as a chicken keeper was the fact that water plays an important role in how productive my hens could be. I knew that chickens needed a constant supply of fresh, clean water, but what I didn’t know was that the type of water can have an impact on production.

First, let’s go over the basics. Water withdrawal or water deprivation can both cause stress and dehydration, which causes egg laying to decrease or stop. Prevent water withdrawal by making sure there is enough water for the whole flock for over 24 hours and longer if you won’t be able to refill the water right away. Prevent water deprivation by watching your flock to make sure they are drinking water. Water supplements and even the chemical make-up of certain water can make it un-palatable for chickens.

Watch out for biofilm. Biofilm is the algae build-up that can be found in drinkers that have been left outside or in the sunshine for any length of time. Biofilm can build up and create harmful pollutants in the water or make it un-palatable for chickens. Washing the drinkers every day can help remove any biofilm that starts to build up.

Now, for types of water. While there aren’t necessarily ‘types’ water, water from different sources can have different chemical make-ups. Some chemical make-ups can cause a decrease in laying. My first year of chicken keeping I learned to never fill my flock’s water drinkers with water from a hose. Something about the lining in the hose I was using contaminated the water and caused my hens not to lay well.

Be conscious about where you get your water from and consider what it may contain in the form of minerals, chemicals, nutrients, and other natural compounds. If decreased laying continues to persist and you can identify no other factor, you may consider having your water tested. However, water issues are not a common reason for hens to stop laying, so investigate other reasons first.

#10. Broodiness

Indicators: prolonged periods in the nesting box accompanied by ruffling feathers, growling, hissing, and defensive pecking, may also have a patch of feathers missing on her breast

Lastly, a more obvious reason for your hen not to be laying would be because she is broody. A broody hen is a hen who wants to sit on a clutch of eggs and hatch them. I go more in detail about broody hens in this post on Dealing with a Broody Hen Guidelines. However broodiness is a pretty easy reason to identify if you’re wondering why your hen is staying in the nesting box but she is not laying an egg.

Broodiness triggers a hormone which causes a hen to stop laying. After she has hatched out her eggs, she will got through a mini molt. Once she has raised her chicks until they are independent, she will go back to laying. Breaking a broody hen will stop her from wanting to be broody and will get her back to laying eggs.

These 10 reasons why hens stop laying eggs should help you diagnose the cause for a decrease in egg production in the homestead flock. With chickens, it can be difficult to determine exactly what the cause of a problem is, so when a hen stops laying, hopefully these scenarios will help you narrow down the reasons why she stopped. A hen won’t lay every single day of her life, but there can be natural and un-natural causes for her to stop. Find out what they are before anything becomes serious!

Need more tips for raising your homestead flock in a natural and simple fashion? Join our modern pioneer community and get our handbook on Raising Chickens Like a Pioneer! We’d love to have you join us and we can’t wait to share our resources with you!