Are your EE poor winter layers?

[vjbakke]

We live in MN, it hasn't been above 32 in over a month. Most days under 20, sub zero nights.We have 4 EE that are about 9 months old. They are proving to be very poor winter layers, we get one egg a week from them. Some days none. Before it was cold most days we would get 3-4 eggs from them. The rest of our flock are about one year older than the EE's. They are RSL and one Dom, they are all going through their first moult. Only 2 of them are laying right now. Their first winter they were great layers, seemed like nothing slowed them down. Is this common for EE in the winter? They are in an insulated un -heated coop with a light on a timer, it is on most of the day, turns off at night.

 

[Jules Mims]

Hello.. I have an Ameracauna who has not laid an egg since September. She's 15 months old and went through her first molting period in September and October. She looks beautiful again but not one egg. She was very consistent last spring and summer. She is very healthy and seems happy. On the other hand, our Barred Rock is consistently laying 1 egg every other day.

I'm not really worried about it because she seems just fine. Guess we'll just have to wait it out.

 

[jewel1]

I don't have much experience, but my EE reached point-of-lay just after Thanksgiving and has been laying an average of 6 eggs/week...with one day where she laid two!

I'm in Northern California where it doesn't get super cold...and I supply about an hour of extra light each day...

--Julie

 

[Cindy in PA]

I have 4 EEs hatched in April & I'm still getting 2-4 eggs a day from them. I do use a light for 14 hours of light a day.

 

[cravenchx]

I have 2 EE's that are 18 months old. I did not get one green egg from late September til 2 weeks before Christmas. Now it is every other day, maybe, with each. I went out everyday and told them "Legs or eggs sweetie"

 

[debid]

My EEs laid through their first winter like champs. This year, they molted in September/October and did not resume laying until supplemental light was added (installed just before Thanksgiving) even though their molt was complete. With the light, they quickly resumed laying and went right back to their spring egg frequency.

 

[kreagerm]

I feel your pain. My EE's haven't laid in a couple months now that the weather and day light changed.

 

[7 Biddies]

I'm only getting an occasional egg from my EE that lays brown eggs, but my green egg layer is still producing 4 to 5 eggs a week, as is my bantam Wyandotte. The other 5 are laying only occasionally, too. They all started laying late last summer and were very productive until Thanksgiving. But, with the shorter days, I only got about a dozen eggs out of 7 chickens this week, most of which came from the 2 hens I just mentioned.

 

[Druantai]

I don't know if you guys are providing extra lighting or not, but when I had my EE, they would lay regularly. I keep my hens on a 14 hour day, with my timer waking them up around 4:30am, since it doesn't get light outside till 6:30 or so.

 

[Keric]

We had some EE with some rhode reds and barred rocks. The easter eggers were the first to stop laying and didn't even start up with light. I would have to imagine there is a lot of different strains of easter eggers out there. Any chicken carrying the genes to make colored eggs are easter eggers so they might not be developed to lay alot, just lay green eggs.