do birds go through menopause

Do birds go through menopause? No fowl has come forward to speak out in defense of their moody ways so who’s to know especially since the scientist are still pondering the answer. But some of you long time flocksters like myself are probably saying, “that explains a few things.” Yes, we’ve had a hen that stocked Robins like a cat, she hated them. And another hen that terrorized the magpies, good for her. We do too. We’ve been known to put our own head down and scream at them at a flying run. But I’m more talking of the ‘Angry Bird’ like personalities that happen just now and then. I think the girls get P.M.S. too. I’ve seen sparrows at the bird feeder that scream and rage, running at any male in sight giving them a right ripping peace of their mind. It didn’t look like the guys had done much either to observe it but who knows what they said?

That’s hardly enough to determine that birds have menopause though. So let’s look at what the scientist have to say on the subject. They don’t think birds have hot flashes. What would you be looking for, birds fanning each other? Extensive bird bathing? Who know? They have checked the bone density and haven’t noticed a change. Now with chickens though, that and there is no diminished I’d question whether they’ve looked at chickens though. The extensive egg laying over a regular bird would be different.

What they do known is that some birds like the Macaw lay all their eggs by their mid 30’s and yet live 2 more decades. A type of menopause is suspected in these birds. Of course I don’t have any Macaws flying around near my home in the wilds of Wyoming but it does not mean my brain didn’t wonder if I let my chooks grow old, would they go through menopause? Are they going through a type of menopause when they begin to lay fewer and fewer eggs? After all it is hormones that trigger egg laying.

In an egg, the first thing to develop is the yolks. Mature yolks of free-range hens are orange; smaller ones yellow; and embryonic yolks flesh colored.

Older hens sometimes have problems with egg production such as being egg bound because as the hen ages, so do the eggs. Egg production in chickens diminishes after age 2. Substantially after age 4 where they may only lay a few times a month.

This is the tube that runs from the ovaries and out. See the egg inside the uterus or shell gland. Here it is developing the hard shell as calcium forms around it.

If you want to know the details of egg production in a hen, this site is great.

So how would you explain a hen’s moody behavior or the reduction in egg production as they age?

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That’s hardly enough to determine that birds have menopause though. So let’s look at what the scientist have to say on the subject. They don’t think birds have hot flashes. What would you be looking for, birds fanning each other? Extensive bird bathing? Who know? They have checked the bone density and haven’t noticed a change. Now with chickens though, that and there is no diminished I’d question whether they’ve looked at chickens though. The extensive egg laying over a regular bird would be different.

Welcome, and come along to discover what happens every week as I straddle the line between doing research and actually learning enough of the subject to be considered proficient. It’s all about self-sufficiency and homesteading. So take a peek while I gather eggs, knead bread, coax rich, foamy milk into the bucket, and plead for the vegetables to grow.

The yolks are the first organelles in an egg to develop. The flesh-colored yolks of embryonic hens are yellow, while the mature yolks of free-range hens are orange.

Thus, how would you account for a hen’s temperamental behavior or her declining egg production with age?

Older hens can experience issues with egg production, such as egg binding, because the hen’s eggs age with her. Egg production in chickens diminishes after age 2. significantly after the age of four, when they might only deposit a few times a month.

A 60-year-old Laysan albatross, the oldest known wild bird in the United States, hatched a chick a few weeks ago in the Midway Atoll (a U.S. territory), despite the fact that most members of her species live only to 30. The geriatric bird, known to wildlife researchers as Wisdom, has probably raised three dozen offspring in her lifetime. Do birds go through menopause?

As chicken farmers know, a hen’s egg production slows substantially around age four. But that’s not a sign that she’s running out of eggs. Older hens are simply more sensitive to changes in diet or light, and they stop laying when living conditions worsen. They may also be “egg bound”—a condition wherein an egg has become stuck on its way from the ovaries to the outside world, blocking future production. In other cases, a hen tries to pass an extra-large egg, which forces a larger than normal segment of her oviduct out of her body, rendering it unable to return. Because these incidents are more common in older birds, the problem is sometimes erroneously attributed to menopause. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement

When their ovaries begin to run low, parrots and macaws do an odd thing: Their egg production spikes. This might be an effort to make up for their lower reproductive effectiveness. A female bird’s percentage of viable eggs decreases with age. Increasing her monthly egg production could increase her chances of conceiving and raising a healthy chick.

Sort of. Many experts reserve the word “menopause” for human females, because it represents a variety of physiological changes—declining levels of certain hormones, anatomical alterations, and the cessation of observable menstrual cycling—that don’t occur together in other creatures. Nevertheless, individual members of some bird species do eventually lay all their eggs and can, like humans, live a fairly long post-reproductive life. Endoscopies have revealed shrunken ovaries in macaws in their mid-30s, indicating that they’ve run out of eggs, but the birds can live up to two additional decades. There’s no evidence that they experience hot flashes or suffer declining bone density during their golden years.

Most older mammals, and even some fish, also stop releasing eggs, although shorter life spans in the wild make post-reproductive lives relatively short. Researchers aren’t exactly sure why humans, evolutionarily, are capable of carrying on so long when they can’t procreate, compared with other creatures. Some theorize that it increases the likelihood that a mother will survive delivery and live long enough to raise her children. In addition, women who aren’t menstruating might have more energy to devote to protecting their children. Others note that menopause prevents fertilization of old, damaged eggs. Finally, advocates of the “grandmother hypothesis” argue that a woman’s extended post-menopausal life provides an extra set of hands for child-rearing.

FAQ

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