No Freeloaders in This Coop! How to Tell Which Hens Are Laying and Which Aren't

Emma had a hunch. Each morning, she harvested eggs from the nesting boxes but she suspected that one of her hens was merely taking up space, eating feed and not giving any effort in return. “Not a freeloader in this coop!” she said, indignant to learn which hen was shirking her daily responsibility.

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself that question about your own backyard flock? We all love our feathered friends, but non-laying hens can, frankly, feel a bit like...well, freeloaders. They gobble up premium feed and fill up coop space without contributing their fair share.

This leads to the question every inquisitive chicken keeper asks themselves: How do I know which hens are laying eggs and which ones are just along for the free ride? Fortunately, there are a few telltale signs that can give you a heads-up that your flock has some secret slackers.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to confidently identify your most productive egg layers, troubleshoot any hens who may be taking an extended vacation from their duties, and make sure that every member of your feathered team is earning her keep. No more freeloaders here! Let's dive in.

Why Might a Hen Stop Laying?

Before diving into the task of identifying which hens are your best layers, it is useful to be aware of the different reasons a hen might stop laying. Similarly to humans, chickens' bodies undergo natural cycles and changes that play a role in their egg production.

The most frequent pause in laying is due to molting. Once a year, typically in the autumn, chickens lose old, battered feathers and grow shiny new ones. Losing feathers like this requires considerable protein and energy, leaving only a little available for egg production (Clauer, 2017). Most hens halt egg production completely throughout their molt until their feathers are renewed. It’s just an extra spa break for your overworked ladies!

The shorter hours of daylight during fall and winter can lead a hen’s body to believe that it’s time to take a seasonal break from egg-laying (Dunkley, 2020). Egg production will decrease as the amount of daily light decreases, until a hen enters her molt phase, at which point she won't lay at all until her body resets itself and lays eggs the following spring or summer depending on your geographic location and length of daylight in a given season. As the days get shorter, you might notice that your flock’s output begins to wane, even if they aren’t molting. It’s a normal reaction to the seasonal change.

A hen can also stop laying due to nutritional imbalances. Laying eggs takes a toll on a hen’s body — she needs lots of protein, calcium and vitamins to produce a perfect egg every day. A diet deficient in any of these essential nutrients is likely to stop her egg production dead in its tracks. Hydration can do that too, so make sure there’s clean, fresh water for the ladies whenever they want it (Jacob, 2022).

In some cases, it’s health problems that are causing a hen’s laying lag. Factors affecting egg production include respiratory diseases, egg yolk peritonitis and reproductive cancers (Biggs et al., 2004). Parasitic infections — such as mites or worms — can also sap your hen’s energy, rendering her too depleted to lay.

Stress is another common reason that can slow down the egg-laying of your hens. Chickens are creatures of habit, which do best on a routine. A change in their surroundings — a new coop mate, a frightening predator interaction or even a sudden change in food — can leave them skittery and disrupt their laying groove (Marçal et al., 2022).

A missed day of egg laying is to be expected, but a prolonged gap in laying usually has a reason behind it. Whenever you see a sudden dip in egg counts or a hen who’s acting strangely, do some smart sleuthing to figure out why and get her back on track.

How to Tell Which Hens Are Laying

Okay, put on your egg inspector hat and figure out which of your hens are paying their room and board! Here are six simple methods to find out if a hen is laying:

Step 1: The Vent Check

A hen’s vent — the hole through which she lays her eggs — can tell you a lot about her current laying status. The vent will be moist, pink and slightly swollen in a hen that is actively laying eggs. It needs to be fatty and ample enough for a few fingers to fit comfortably inside.

A hen that is not laying will have a dry, puckered vent that is small and firm to the feel. The tissue might appear pale and shriveled, unlike that of an egg-laying hen. A quick peek under her tail will tell you what camp she is in!

Step Two: The Comb and Wattle Test

Like a mood ring, a hen’s comb (the fleshy structure atop her head) and wattles (the rubbery nobs that hang down from either side of the comb) change color depending on what’s occurring inside her body. An active layer’s comb and wattles will be bright red, it will be big and fat, and shiny due to all the extra blood that’s pumping around during the egg-laying phase.

On the other hand, a hen undergoing an egg sabbatical will have a pale, shriveled comb and wattles. They can look pale pink, even almost blue, signs her reproductive system has temporarily gone dark.

So check in on your girls’ headgear bright red accoutrements indicate an active layer, while dull, faded ones probably mean she’s on holiday.

Step 3: Check the Inward Spread Between Your Pelvic Bones

Want to get a little more hands-on? The pelvic bone test is a well-tested method for determining whether or not your hen has been in the nest box working up a sweat. In one hand hold your hen, the elbow of the arm supporting your hen will swell as it will free your other hand to examine your hen.

You’ll gently place your pointer and middle fingers on either side of her vent, and press until you can feel her pelvic bones under skin and muscle. These bones will be flared out in a laying hen to accommodate 2-3 fingers being able to fit between them. This added space allows for the eggs when they exit her body.

In a non-laying hen, the pelvic bones are real nice and tight with only about a finger's index width between them. She’s not preparing for eggs to pass through, so her pelvic gap is much tighter.

This test takes a little practice, but once you get the hang of it, you can zip through your whole flock to check their laying prowess!

Step 4: The Feather Condition

Believe it or not, what your hens are wearing can also give clues about their laying habits. Examine the feathers around each hen’s vent region and chest. In laying hens, they will be all worn and ratty from all the back and forth in the nest box. You might see broken shafts, missing sections, or simply a ratty appearance.

A hen that has been laying eggs, on the other hand, usually has the area around her behind and chest looking spotless and fluffy. Since she isn’t rubbing against the nest box all the time, her plumage remains smooth and unblemished.

Remember, a molting hen will also have patchy, scruffy feathers. The difference is that a molting hen’s feather loss is more even over her entire body and not just a particular part of it that’s working.

Step 5: Observe Visits to Your Nest Box

We also known that a simple and the way to know if your ladies have been laying, is to create a nice and comfy observation post and see them do their thing! Most hens lay on a relatively reliable schedule — and most hens lay a little bit after sunrise.

Get out to your coop in the morning with a warm drink and a watchful eye. Record which hens go in and out of the nest boxes. Any excursion into the nest exceeding a couple minutes now likely indicates she’s laboring to create her daily egg. Short pop-ins are probably just snuggly exploration.

Or a small amount of repositionable tape dotted around the next box opening to hold it in place. If a hen comes in to lay an egg, she’ll likely dislodge the tape, giving you a clear indication that she’s doing the job even if you didn’t catch her big moment.

Step 6: The Test of Food and Water Intake

Speaking of chickens, here’s a fun piece of chicken math: The act of laying an egg takes up about 10 percent of a hen’s total daily energy expenditure! Building that protein-rich albumen and sturdy shell is hard work, so laying hens are generally the biggest eaters in the coop (Jacob, 2022).

Watch which of your hens chow down most vigorously at feeding time. Laying queens will devour their feed, frequently returning to the feeder for second and third helpings. They also tend to guzzle water considering that egg whites are mostly H2O.

Chickens on an egg-cation are also more particular eaters, as they’re not under the same calorie pressure. They could come to the feeder less frequently and have a few dainty sips instead of guzzling down the water.

Now I don’t mean a good appetite equals good laying performance. Some breeds and individual birds are just chow hounds! But in conjunction with the other indicators on this list, healthy food and water avails is a good hint that your girl is doing everything she can to produce eggs.

Tips on Getting Non-Layers to Lay Again

Let’s say you’ve played detective and found a slacker in your flock. *But don’t give your non-layer the boot just yet! Here are a few things you can try to help get your girl back in the layin groove.

Increase Daylight Exposure

As mentioned before, hens must have 14-16 hours of light per day to maintain good laying conditions (Clauer, 2017). And in the fall and winter, when days shorten, you might need to provide some extra lighting to keep your girls at work laying eggs.

Add a coop light on a timer that comes on 2-3 hours before sunrise and stays on until natural daylight takes over. Use warm spectrum bulbs in the 2700-3000K range to mimic the appearance of sunlight. Just don’t run the light more than 16–17 hours a day—hens need their beauty rest!

Optimize Nutrition

If you think your hen has been slacking on her egg production due to a nutritional imbalance, it is time to check her diet. Does your hen have access to a balanced layer feed suitable for her age? Egg-layers require 16-18% protein with added calcium to support egg production (Burke, 2022).

Provide a high-quality layer ration (8-10% protein), plus occasional nutrient-rich treats such as black soldier fly larva, mealworms, and scrambled eggs. Ensure your girls also have access to a free choice oyster shell or crushed eggshells to boost their calcium intake.

Minimize Stress & Bullying

Is your non-layer now the victim of bullying or just plain stress from her flockmates? Examine your coop dynamics closely because hen-on-hen harassment is a real thing. An overbossy bird sometimes chases a submissive hen off a nest and makes her too nervous to lay.

Ensure that your coop has at least 2-3 square feet per hen, as well as adequate private nesting places so everyone has a secure location to do her business. Entertain them a great deal by providing treat balls, hanging cabbages and dust baths (so everyone keeps the peace).

If one bird appears to be a bad actor in particular, you might need to temporarily segregate her with a wire dog crate or fencing until the pecking order rebalances. A well-balanced flock is a productive flock!

Make sure disease or parasitism are not the issue

A sudden stop in laying can sometimes be a sign of an underlying health issue. Inspect your hen carefully, looking for any signs of external parasites like mites, lice, or fleas. Check under her feathers for scabs and inflammation, and excessive shaking that might indicate a pest problem.

Keep an eye on your hen’s poop: Look for anything unusual in color or consistency that could indicate an internal infection. If your hen appears to be sick or injured, your best course of action is to have her seen by an avian veterinarian who can recommend the best treatment to have her healthy and back on the lay.

Reduce Broodiness

Occasionally, a mama-wannabe hen takes possession of a nest box as her own and hunkers down, refusing to move for days or even weeks. This behavior, known as broodiness, is your hen's instinct to try to hatch some baby chicks of her own.

The only problem? She has no fertile eggs under her fluffy bum, and here she is wasting precious laying days! To take your hen out of her broody haze, pull her out of the nest box and keep her on the coop floor multiple times each day. You can also douse her favorite nesting area in something or block it off to give her a clue.

Some chicken keepers find that putting a bag of ice or frozen peas under a broody hen will suffice to cool her undercarriage and break her nesting drive. Your mission is to gently but firmly get her back to normal hen life and away from pointless egg sitting.

A farmer story: The missing layer

I couldn’t help myself, ending with another relatable story from the farmyard. My dear friend Maria was convinced that her sweet little Silkie, Popcorn, was a total freeloader. Each day, Maria gathered eggs from her other hens, but Popcorn’s nest box stayed defiantly empty.

“She’s too busy booking up those fancy fluffy feathers to bother laying! Maria would half complain, casting Popcorn a glance as the bird picked at the ground daintily.

Months passed with nary an egg from the purported slacker. Maria became increasingly and increasingly frustrated, certain Popcorn was romping around the farm living a life of leisure. That is, until the day Maria found out Popcorn’s big secret.

One morning, Maria saw Popcorn sneaking out of the barn, looking furtively from side to side. Suspicious, Maria trailed the hen at a distance, seeing her duck behind a large oak tree. There, tucked away in the tall grass was a massive clutch of eggs —at least two dozen!

As it turned out, Popcorn was not slacking off at all. She had just been lying in her very own place, expertly hidden from the line of sight of the human taking care of her. Popcorn clucked smugly at Maria as if to say “See, I told you I wasn’t no freeloader!”

The moral of the story? Occasionally our hens have secrets that even the most vigilant chicken keeper misses. Don’t count a bird out as a non-layer until you do a little extra carpet sweeping and double check your lady just hasn’t discovered a hiding place for her prized eggs.

Finale: Which Ones are the Freeloaders?

Well, there you have it—all you need to know to be able to identify which of your hens are working and which might be on a permanent vacation from their egg-laying duties. A little sleuthing on how to use the tips and tricks we’ve covered, and you’ll be able to really understand your flock’s production habits!

Do remember that even the best layer is entitled to a day off once in a while. And a day without eggs here and there is totally normal — and nothing to fret over. However, if you know you have a hen not pulling their weight in the coop, it’s worth investigating to see if there’s some issue you can resolve.

Here’s a quick checklist to help you scout for any suspected freeloaders in your coop:

✅ You can see a wide, moist vent of your hen

✅ Search for a fully-formed bright red, pillowy comb and wattles

✅ Culled your hen and felt her pelvic bones for a 2-3 finger gap

✅ Check vent feathers for wear

✅ Monitor for the length of nest box spills in the AM

✅ Jot down your greediest eaters and drinkers

If you do encounter a non-layer among you, do not panic. Provide 14-16 hours of light per day, a calcium-enriched diet, and little stress to the coop. Take away any health issues or sneaky broodiness, and make sure your hen has time to get back into the routine.

With some patience and a bit of care, most healthy hens will eventually get back to laying. And if you happen to discover a secret outdoor nest full of mystery eggs — well, that’s just one of many joys and surprises of keeping backyard chickens!

Have you ever discovered a sneaky “freeloader” in your flock? How did you handle it? 

Thanks for reading, and happy chicken keeping!

 

 

References:

Biggs, P. E., Persia, M. E., Koelkebeck, K. W., & Parsons, C. M. (2004). Further evaluation of nonfeed removal methods for molting programs. _Poultry Science_, _83_(5), 745-752.

 

Burke, A. (2022). How Much Feed Do Chickens Eat? A Clear Guide With Charts. Homesteady. https://homesteady.com/13428005/how-much-feed-do-chickens-eat

 

Clauer, P. (2017). Proper Light Management for Your Home Laying Flock. PennState Extension. https://extension.psu.edu/proper-light-management-for-your-home-laying-flock

 

Dunkley, C. S. (2020). Molting in Poultry. _UGA Cooperative Extension Bulletin_, 1516. https