If your hens quit laying in the fall, the usual reason is short days. Hens need about 14 to 16 hours of light to lay well, and by late fall most of the country gets far less than that. The fall molt often lands at the same time and takes a few months. Neither one means anything is wrong. If one hen stopped and the rest kept going, look at her age, a broody streak or her health instead.
I’ve kept a backyard flock for eight years, twelve hens and one rooster with a bad attitude, and every November somebody at the feed store asks me what’s wrong with their birds. Usually nothing. Below is how I work out which reason it is, going by Oregon State University’s extension bulletin on why chickens stop laying, plus the lighting advice from Penn State Extension and the University of Arizona.
Short Days Are the Usual Reason
Laying runs on daylight. Arizona’s extension explains how: the pineal gland, a pea-sized gland near the center of a hen’s brain, senses day length. Longer days turn egg production up and shorter ones turn it down. Penn State says the drop shows up most often in September and October, when the day falls to 12 hours and below.
And it keeps falling. Days shorten from June 22 until December 22, per Oregon State, and in Oregon that takes the day from nearly 16 hours of light to just over 8. Arizona gets 9 to 10 hours in December and January. Oregon State’s bulletin says the day has to stay above 12 hours to hold production, and that a 14- to 16-hour day is typical for laying hens.
Here’s the part most people get backwards. It isn’t the cold. Arizona’s extension calls that a common misconception: the shorter day stops the eggs, not the temperature. Cold matters for other reasons, and my guide to how cold is too cold for chickens covers when it does. But a hen in a snug coop on a 9-hour day will still take the winter off.
Or It’s the Fall Molt
Shorter days also start the molt. Penn State ties the two together: as day length falls, hens begin to drop and replace their feathers, and laying slows or stops. Oregon State says the molt can take several months, because the hen puts most of her energy into growing feathers and has little left over for eggs.
You’ll know it when you see it. Feathers all over the coop floor and the run, like a pillow fight nobody cleaned up. One thing Oregon State points out that I didn’t know for years: a molt doesn’t cause bare spots in one place. A bald patch on a back or around the vent is almost always another bird picking, and that’s a different problem.
Penn State says it does no harm to let hens molt naturally, and they’ll come back into lay in spring. Oregon State goes further and suggests letting them molt in their second winter even if you light the coop, by switching the lights off for about 6 weeks so the molt finishes properly. For a rough date when eggs come back, our chicken molting planner works it out from when the feathers started dropping.
How Old Are Your Hens?
Every hen slows down eventually. Oregon State lays out the curve. A pullet starts laying at 18 to 20 weeks. She peaks at about 35 weeks at better than 90 percent, which is 9 eggs in 10 days, and holds that peak for about 10 weeks before a slow decline. Chickens lay well until they’re 2 to 3 years old. After that, production drops and the molts come more often and last longer.
So if your best layer is four, this winter’s break may simply run longer than it used to, and spring may bring fewer eggs than last year. That isn’t something to fix. Oregon State notes that a high-producing hen that has laid for 3 years may have produced more than 30 times her own body weight in eggs. She’s earned the slow years. I keep my old girls. They eat bugs, they boss the young ones around and they still lay a few in spring.
A Broody Hen Isn’t Laying Either
If it’s one hen, flattened in the nest box and growling when you reach under her, she’s broody. Oregon State says the same hormone change that makes a hen want to sit also stops her laying. Some breeds do it far more than others. Cochins and Silkies are the champions, and Leghorns rarely bother.
The fix Oregon State gives is simple. Collect eggs every day, from the nests and from any hiding spots, because a nest full of eggs is what usually sets a hen off. If she still won’t leave, keep her away from the nest for a few days and the mood passes.
While you’re out there, check the hiding spots too. A hen that free-ranges will happily start a nest under the deck or behind the woodpile. More than once, a flock of mine that “stopped laying” had only stopped laying where I was looking.
Feed, Oyster Shell and the 15-Minute Rule
Diet is the one cause that’s entirely on you. For the most eggs, Oregon State says to feed a layer ration free choice and put out oyster shell free choice in its own feeder. Treats get limited to what your hens clean up in 15 minutes, or none at all, because scratch, table scraps and garden waste unbalance the diet. The oyster shell is the calcium, and Arizona’s extension says adequate calcium is what supports eggshell quality, so a hen short on it shows you in thin shells before she quits.
Winter is when I see this go wrong. People feel sorry for cold birds and dump a coffee can of scratch in the run every morning. The hens fill up on corn and eat less layer feed, and the layer feed is where the protein and calcium are. Oregon State also warns against feeding starter or grower to laying hens: the nutrient levels are different, and it cuts egg production.
Arizona’s extension makes the same point from the lighting side. Extra light only works if the hens are eating right, with enough calcium in particular to support the eggshells. Light without the feed behind it is asking a hen to build shells out of nothing.
Stress Counts, Even the Kind You Don’t See
Oregon State’s line on stress is worth reading twice: a hen may stop laying over stress so small you never noticed it. Their list includes moving, handling, overheating, a fright, and running out of feed or water.
In winter, two of those show up in my coop. A frozen waterer means no water, even if it’s only for a morning. And a predator that spends a night working at the coop, like a raccoon testing the latches, is a fright for every bird inside, whether or not it gets in. Oregon State’s list of what keeps stress down is plain: protection from the weather and predators, a clean coop, good ventilation, and feed and water that never run out. My winter coop prep list walks through getting that done before the first hard freeze.
When It’s Her Health
This is where I drop the jokes. Oregon State says a drop in egg production is often the first sign of disease. Other signs to watch for are a bird that’s lethargic or just standing around, limping, coughing or looking dull. If several birds show the same signs, Oregon State says to get professional help. In Oregon that means the county extension agent or the state’s veterinary diagnostic lab. Wherever you live, a vet who sees poultry is the place to start.
Some trouble is inside the hen. An egg can get stuck in the oviduct, which is called egg bound. A hen can also have a prolapse, where the oviduct stays outside her body after she lays. Oregon State says a prolapsed hen should come out of the flock right away, because the others will pick at her. Any of these is a call to the vet, not a fix from the feed store shelf.
Should You Light the Coop?
That’s your call. Penn State says letting hens molt and rest does them no harm. Arizona says a steady 14 to 16 hours of light doesn’t harm them or shorten their laying life either, because a hen is born with far more egg follicles than she’ll ever lay. So it comes down to whether you want winter eggs.
If you do, here’s how the three extensions say to go about it:
- Use a timer. Oregon State says even a 1-day lapse can hurt production, so once you start, keep it going.
- Add the light in the morning. Penn State and Arizona both suggest light before sunrise, then let the natural sunset send the hens to roost. Light added after dark should dim over 30 to 45 minutes, Arizona says, because hens see poorly at night and need time to find the roost.
- Aim for 14 to 16 hours, never more. Penn State suggests 16 for mature hens and warns that a longer day stresses them. Arizona adds that more than 16 hours brings no extra eggs, and that lights should never stay on around the clock.
- Change it slowly. No more than 1 hour a week, per Penn State.
- Keep it dim and warm. Penn State says hens need only half a foot-candle, about 5 lux, from a warm bulb under 3500K of up to 30 to 40 watts. Arizona says one 60-watt incandescent or a 9-watt LED per 200 square feet of coop and run is plenty. Oregon State’s test is simpler: bright enough to read a newspaper.
- Never a heat lamp. Penn State and Arizona both say not to use one as the light, and Arizona calls heat lamps a large fire risk. Keep the wiring free of dust and hang the bulb where no bird can perch on it.
The timer math is easy. Take your sunset and count back. If the sun goes down at 5 p.m. and you want 14 hours, the light comes on at 3 a.m. Arizona notes its lights come on as early as 3:20 a.m. in the darkest weeks.
One caution about young birds. Arizona says pullets should be on naturally shortening days from 8 to 20 weeks old, because laying too early can lead to prolapse. If you raised spring pullets, hold off on lighting until they reach laying age.
What I’d Check This Week
If the whole flock quit around October or November and the coop floor is covered in feathers, you’re almost certainly fine. Keep them on layer ration, cut back the scratch, keep the water from freezing and wait for spring, or put the light on a timer if you want eggs sooner. If it’s one bird, look closer. And if a bird looks sick, call someone who can examine her.
My birds get the winter off. I buy eggs from December to about March, and in spring the nest boxes fill back up without my help.
Related read: How to Raise Chickens for Eggs — Instant PDF download. Secure checkout by Stripe
