Why Your Hens Have Stopped Laying: Autumn, Daylight and the Moult
Share
It happens every year and it still catches people out. The eggs tail off through September, stop almost entirely by October, and a perfectly healthy flock that was laying beautifully in June is suddenly producing nothing at all.
Nine times out of ten there is nothing wrong with your hens.
It is the daylight, not the hens
Laying is triggered by day length. A hen needs somewhere around fourteen hours of daylight to lay consistently, and once we are past the equinox in late September there simply is not that much light in the day. By December there are barely eight hours.
This is not a fault. It is how chickens are built. Wild birds do not raise chicks in midwinter, and domestic hens have kept the wiring.
Some people add artificial light to the coop to keep production going. It works, but it is worth understanding that you are overriding a natural rest period rather than fixing a problem. Plenty of keepers would rather let the birds have the winter off and accept fewer eggs. Both are reasonable positions.
The moult lands at the worst possible moment
On top of the light going, most hens moult in autumn — and the timing is unfortunate, because the two things compound each other.
Growing a complete new set of feathers is genuinely demanding. Feathers are largely protein, and a bird putting its resources into growing them is not putting them into eggs. A hen in heavy moult looks scruffy, patchy, sometimes frankly alarming, and will often stop laying altogether for several weeks.
Older birds tend to moult for longer and start later. A hen in her third or fourth autumn may take two months over it.
What helps is protein. Not more feed necessarily, but better quality feed through the moult. Layers pellets are formulated for laying, and a bird that is not laying but is growing feathers has different needs. Many keepers move to a higher-protein grower or all-rounder ration through the moult and back to layers afterwards.
We stock layers pellets, growers and mixed corn from Allen & Page, Badminton, Fancy Feeds, Dodson & Horrell and Heygates. Mixed corn is useful as a late-afternoon scratch feed going into winter — it gives them something to do and a bird goes to roost with a full crop.
A word on mixed corn though: it is a treat, not a ration. Fed as the bulk of the diet it does not carry what a bird needs. Late afternoon, in moderation, on top of a proper feed.
Grit matters more in winter
Once birds are spending more time in and less time ranging, they are picking up less naturally. Both kinds of grit are worth having in front of them — insoluble grit for the gizzard, and oystershell for birds in lay. We keep mixed poultry grit in.
Bedding, and why you will use more
Shut in earlier, out later, and arriving back wet. Bedding use rises sharply from about now, and a damp coop is the root of most winter poultry problems.
Ventilation without draught is the thing to get right. A closed-up coop with no airflow gets damp fast, and damp is worse for birds than cold. They can handle cold far better than most people assume.
We stock Easichick, chopped straw, woodchip and pine shavings.
Do the red mite job now
This is the one worth acting on before winter rather than after.
Red mite go quiet in the cold. They do not go away. They sit in the cracks and crevices of the housing waiting for warmth, and a coop that looks clean in January can be heaving by April.
A thorough clean-out now — while the weather still allows it and while you can still get everything dried properly — is a far easier job than the same job in freezing rain. Strip it, clean it, treat the housing, let it dry completely.
We keep poultry housing sprays and powders in, including the Barrier and Net-Tex ranges.
When it is not the season
Autumn explains most autumn egg drops, but not all of them. Worth a closer look if:
- A bird is hunched, quiet, or not interested in food
- You see discharge, laboured breathing, or a bird isolating itself
- Birds are losing condition rather than just feathers
- The drop is sudden and total in midsummer rather than gradual in autumn
- You find eggs with soft or missing shells over a period
Any of those is a conversation with a vet rather than a feed change. A moulting hen looks rough but behaves normally — still busy, still bossy, still first over when food appears. A sick hen behaves differently, and that is the tell.
The short version
- Eggs stopping in autumn is normal. Daylight and the moult together
- Feed for the moult — protein matters more than quantity
- Mixed corn is a treat, late afternoon, not the main ration
- Grit in front of them, both kinds
- Do the red mite clean-out now, not in January
- Ventilation without draught — damp is worse than cold
- Behaviour is the tell. Scruffy but busy is fine. Quiet and hunched is not
Buying feed and bedding for the winter? Free UK delivery goes by weight — free over £50 up to 30kg, over £100 from 30 to 60kg, and over £200 from 60kg to 150kg. Above that it goes on a pallet and we will quote it before you order. Email us and we will price it up.