I added a light on a timer to my coop to deal with the fact that it gets dark awfully early. When days were long I was getting five eggs a day like clockwork. So, help an impatient person out: How long will it take (on average) to get the girls back into the "lots of light! Lots of eggs!" mode? A week? Longer? I have difficulty believing that the eggworks can be turned on or off very quickly but I could of course be wrong.
Well, I would increase the "daylight hours" gradually. When I added my light, it was dark until about 7 am. I had the light come on at 6:30 am for a few days, and moved it back 30 minutes about every 5 to 7 days. Now it comes on at 4:30 am and dusk is at 5:15 or so. I don't have plans to increase it any more, as the days will start getting longer soon. My pullets (hatched 4-21-09) have laid well all through the autumn and early winter. My 2 year old hens have no extra light in their coop, and are not laying much at all. They laid all last winter, so I'm giving them a rest. Good luck with yours. Next time start the light before the days get this short. PS you should add the extra light in the morning, rather than at night so they are not caught off the roost when the lights suddenly go out.
I put in light and started it out at 5:00pm going off around 9. And comming on at 6:00am and off again around 9am. I did that right away. I didn't think about doing it gradually but my chickens bounced right back into full egg production mode after two or three days. So if I did it wrong the girls did well with it.
