Cold weather= delayed laying?

[Studio2770]

We have 2 chickens, a 19 week old EE and a 20 week old cochin. The EE's comb is coming in quicker than the cochin, but her comb and wattle is slowly getting there. It's going to be in the 50s this week and I'm wondering if they'll delay in their start.

 

[Pyxis]

It's not the cold that would delay them, but the length of the day. As winter comes in, days get shorter, and, generally speaking, a hen needs ~14 hours of light a day to kickstart her hormones into laying gear. That said, there are some breeds that will lay in the winter, and from what I've heard cochins are decent winter layers.

 

[Studio2770]

It's not the cold that would delay them, but the length of the day. As winter comes in, days get shorter, and, generally speaking, a hen needs ~14 hours of light a day to kickstart her hormones into laying gear. That said, there are some breeds that will lay in the winter, and from what I've heard cochins are decent winter layers.

I see. It's funny because they went to roost at around 8 pm but now they start heading in at around 5! Perhaps our EE will start laying for a bit but may stop, along with our leghorns when it gets colder and shorter days. Our cochin may be the only layer. But I guess we could help them a bit.

 

[tdbrueggen]

This is just another reason why the commercial guys like to keep them all indoors under managed lighting conditions. Not that I promote that, but if you are in need of eggs, you could put a light in the coop on a timer so that it kicks on before daylight and stays on afterwards, to give that full 14 hours of light. My brother and I used to have a flock of about 125 layers years ago, and we did this in the early fall to keep them going. It's not a cure-all to keep them all laying full steam, but did seem to help out.

 

[Studio2770]

I am not really worried about not getting eggs; just wondering if our younger gals will start late because of the seasonal shift.