When to expect eggs or if at all in winter?

[billdane]

Lol yeah I know which one my rooster is guys. He's been crowing for about 2 months now

 

[billdane]

Are you getting eggs right now chicken canoe having shorter days than me?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

That question was for Chickencanoe but I'm chilling out while my son naps and have too much time on hands.

With the shortening of day light pullets not in lay will take a bit longer than normal for that particular bird (first egg is very strain/line of bird oriented). By no means does it mean pullets wont lay in the dark of winter. I prefer a heavy ratio of pullets to hens in the coop for winter flock due to their excellent production without adding a light on timer in mornings to get back up to 12-14 total daylight time. Done artificial lighting before and just done with it opting for a few less eggs and heavy pullet ratio of layers. Your birds will come into lay with the 18 weeks old now likely starting in January.

Here in the north is where we've got another factor contending with egg production. That's brutal cold. When the high's for a two weeks straight in late Jan- early Feb don't get above single digits and many of those nights are -20F--30F the birds go on strike. I can't blame them. So if a pullet has not gotten into production by January here they likely wont until March. The shorter days will prolong lay and slow it some if laying but adding in the brutal cold clinches it. With a standard bred flock that take longer to lay anyway, adding to that prolong period due to short days and then cold it's not uncommon for a heritage (standard bred) pullet to wait until spring. This is what I'm a little anxious about currently. 29 weeks and no eggs currently. I don't think you've anything to worry about with your production hatchery layers in your region. They'll just take a few weeks longer than if they'd turned 24 weeks back in early Sept.

Illustrating just how much time on my hands I have:

The problem with hens is they have a pre winter molt. Without extra lighting and protein this yearly cycle can linger well over 3 months. This is why a heavy ratio of pullets each year is important especially here in the frozen cold. If you don't get a hens molt to be quick up north she'll linger due to cold and before you know it she didn't lay from Sept/Oct to March. Lighting and protein will get them back laying early January (or not stopped all together) before the severe cold so they may give some eggs through that too.

 

[billdane]

I guess on the bright side I don't have to deal with them molting this winter. I'll just have to patient and see if I get eggs this winter or not. I guess March isn't too far away if I have waited this long...ill post pictures if I do get eggs before then.

 

[Sonya9]

I am just a bit south of you and to my surprise some of my older birds have just started laying again after taking months off. The 4 year old buff orpington hadn't laid an egg in 5 months until this week. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hope the pullets will start too.

Funny thing is each egg causes a tremendous amount of chatter and excitement in the flock with lots of "oooohing and aaaahing" and egg inspection from the hens and the little roosters too. I don't remember this much excitement over eggs before.

If your pullets start up they will probably keep on laying through next fall, or so I have heard.

 

[billdane]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed as of now my chickens have done absolutely nothing out of the normal like the "chicken song" or sqautting like people say so we will see

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Are you getting eggs right now chicken canoe having shorter days than me?

I think I have 16 hens and 23 pullets. I was getting a lot of eggs from my hens till about 6 weeks ago. Most quit and molted about the same time. About the same time, I had quite a few pullets that were delayed in starting. There was a week or so with only about 2 eggs a day out of everyone.
I added light to the coop that had most of the pullets in it, plus a few hens. All but 2 or 3 of the hens have recovered from molt now.
Now I'm getting 2 or 3 hen eggs and about 6 pullet eggs a day.

 

[Walnut Grove]

Thanks for the post! I too have 4 pullets (2-Barred Rock, 2-Buff Orps) Born in May here in Massachusetts, they too are not laying yet and I Was wondering when. Thanks again for all the info!

 

[billdane]

Just wanted to let y'all know I finally got my first egg after almost 30 weeks lol I believe it's my barred rock and she has laid 2 now. She is laying them on the floor so I put in some fake eggs in nesting boxes to see if that helps

 

[LoveMyGirls2]

This is my first batch of hens, too, but I got mine at 15 weeks in June so they've been laying pretty good for some time now. We started to notice eggs in their 24-26th week of age, so I'm thinking yours should be coming soon. They started out with an egg one day and three the next, etc. but not lay between 9-14 per day. We've only had a few 14 egg days--including yesterday--but those days always make me smile! I'm not sure how cold it gets there, but your days becoming shorter will affect egg laying. We added a light on a timer so that they have the same length of days they used to have in the summer. Our light comes on at 3 AM and cuts off at 6 AM and that's just enough extra 'sunshine' to keep them laying. Hope this helps and hope you have a great, egg-filled holiday!