Restart hens laying

[littlebugsdancing]

We have had a really mild winter. Most days have been in the 40s with little snow. This is very abnormal. At the beginning of Jan we had one record breaking cold snap and we sat at - 40 for 3 days. Everyone went into survival mode and now I only have 1 hen laying. How do I help them restart.

 

[nuthatched]

So give them some beans like lentils, they have 2 protiens that aid the hen in laying. Works everytime for me!

Beans are toxic to chickens, unless cooked. Lentil are fine but they aren't going to aid laying, it's a /daylight/pituitary gland/ hormone thing, especially this time of year. Higher protein feed is healthier foe them and cheaper for you if you're seeking to raise protein.

 

[nuthatched]

Its normal and has little to do temperature. Wait for longer days, in about 2-3 weeks.

 

[NatJ]

The reason mine stopped was because we are off grid and didnt have our light situation figured out. I gave them light and that it still didnt help after about a month and thats when I discovered lentils.

If they started laying about a month after you provided the extra light, that is about what I would expect if the light made the difference.

It takes several weeks for a hen's body to go from not-laying to laying. She grows a whole bunch of egg yolks from pinhead-size up to ready-to-lay yolk size, and then every day or two she can put the egg white & shell on one egg and lay it.

We are into the time of year (in the northern hemisphere) when the days are getting longer, and many pullets and hens are starting to lay again. Some do it sooner than others. But because some of them are naturally starting to lay again, people find many kinds of "tricks" that do not really work-- the person just happened to try it when the hens were about ready to lay anyway, so it looks like it worked.

ANY trick, tip, or idea that seems to cause laying in less than a week or two, is not really bringing the hens from a state of completely not-laying to a state of laying eggs. Something that actually causes laying should take around a month to work, plus or minus a bit because not all hens are alike. (Sort-of exception: if hens are already laying but are hiding the eggs or eating them, anything that makes them stop those behaviors can work quickly, because the eggs are being laid anyway. It's just a matter of the person being able to get them. But that is not really the same thing as making a non-layer start laying again.)

 

[Mrs. K]

I was getting 3 eggs (out of 11 hens) before that wicked cold spell, two quit but my green egg laying production Red - who lays faithfully nearly every day and yes I know a production red is suppose to give a brown egg - she didn't get the memo.

Yesterday and today, 1 of the original 3 layers started back up again. So 2 eggs. I have 4 pullets who hatched in August, they have combs as red as berries, and the rooster seems to like them...so they should start soon! One of the BA who was laying has a good red comb, so she should start soon.

But today was very foggy and dark all day... oh sometimes this hobby requires a lot of patience!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I think it was @aart that first told me that it takes about 25 hours for an egg to be formed inside a hen. So even for a hen that's laying daily, every day she'll lay about an hour later than the previous day.

 

[NatJ]

From my research its the two protiens that aid the hen in laying but that is online info so it may be a combination of both! The two are Lysine and Methionine.

FYI Lysine and methionine are amino acids not proteins. Protein is like muscle meat.

That is interesting about Lysine! I thought amino acids are protien?

Protein is made of amino acids.

Lysine and methionine are amino acids. When we talk about them individually, we call them amino acids, not proteins.

Amino acids can be combined in different ways to make many different proteins. For example, casein is one particular protein in milk (not the only protein in the milk, just the first one whose name I could think of to use as an example.)

When we talk about the amount of protein in food, sometimes we look at the total amount of protein, and sometimes we pay attention to which specific amino acids are present in what quantities because we want to have the right ones for chickens, or for people, or whatever else. Not everything needs the same set of amino acids (cats can develop deficiencies on foods that are fine for dogs, corn grows properly with a set that isn't right for people or chickens, etc.)

That's about the extent of my own knowledge of protein. I notice that wikipedia has some informative articles for anyone who wants to learn more, although the one on "protein" is beyond the level I'm willing to read right now.

 

[MamaPoult]

So give them some beans like lentils, they have 2 protiens that aid the hen in laying. Works everytime for me!

 

[goats-n-oats]

I understand, I cook them on the woodstove. Have you ever tried it? My gals stopped laying for 2 days and they have 14 hours of artificial light I gave them lentils yesterday and I'm back in production. I've tried it multiple times and it works faithfully. I'm not trying to contridict what your saying but I think you've been misinformed. Again, not trying to start a fight, just saying what I know.

I'm going to try this today!

 

[goats-n-oats]

I understand, I cook them on the woodstove. Have you ever tried it? My gals stopped laying for 2 days and they have 14 hours of artificial light I gave them lentils yesterday and I'm back in production. I've tried it multiple times and it works faithfully. I'm not trying to contridict what your saying but I think you've been misinformed. Again, not trying to start a fight, just saying what I know.

Hi @MamaPoult how fast do you see results after feeding lentils to your flock? I gave my flock some at 6am this morning, and by 11am found a jumbo ISA Brown egg, the first jumbo egg I've seen in weeks.