Decreased Egg Production Even WITH Supplemental Lighting??

[DaCrazyHouse]

New guy here .....is it better to run the lights early or at dusk.......Iam in tTexas and currently have mine running 5 pm til 8 pm ish seems like nothing has changed much here.....

 

[Betsy57]

New guy here .....is it better to run the lights early or at dusk.......Iam in tTexas and currently have mine running 5 pm til 8 pm ish seems like nothing has changed much here.....

I have mine come on at 5 am and then off at 8 am and then on at 5 pm and off at 9 pm. I don't need that in the summer but that is for spring/fall and winter. I just have a regular 60 watt bulb and that has always worked well for me.

 

[WVDoug]

New guy here .....is it better to run the lights early or at dusk.......Iam in tTexas and currently have mine running 5 pm til 8 pm ish seems like nothing has changed much here.....

Early morning is better.
Chickens can't see well in the dark. They need gradual darkening so they know it's time to "go to bed" and find their way.
My coop light goes on at about 2:25 AM and off about 7:40 AM. Sunset is about 4:55 PM.

 

[Pixie]

I started to get lower egg production all of a sudden about 3 weeks ago. It did get cold too though for a bit. Only 8-10 eggs per day out of 28 that are laying. I ended up trying some LED Christmas lights (the blueish ones, 100 string for $6). I leave them plugged in all day as it is fairly dark in the coop unless it is nice and sunny.

Since then the eggs are getting better. Today I got the best # so far at 19. Previous days were 17, 14, 12.

I wonder though if things will go back once the weather finally decides it is winter.

 

[lazy gardener]

My production continues to increase. All time high today. 13/19. (With 4 youngsters yet to come on line, and 1 gal who needs to be culled.)

 

[dolfi]

I still have no eggs. Going to be the third month with no eggs. I hope when they start they continue without any stop. Lol

 

[lazy gardener]

Final egg count for the day: 15! Highest count ever!

 

[papatassin]

Did you have stress from a predator, perhaps unknown?

Is the roosting area against a wall at different levels?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

It could be that you aren't giving them enough light.. I sold most of my 1 1/2 year old layers in Sept, what I have left is about 10 of the older girls and 30+ pullets who started laying the end of Sept and the last few should start the end of this month. We decided this year to add a light to the coop and I have been very happy with the results. I never added light before so I asked around to find out what they needed. We have a 60 watt bulb that I turn on at 3 pm and turn off at 8-9 am.. They need 16 hours of light to remain productive, now, this did not stop my older (1 1/2 year olds) from molting but it has greatly increased the amount of eggs laid daily. I have around 50 layers and I gathered 32 eggs yesterday... One drawback, I have girls still going broody, I hadn't ever had this happen so I believe its the lighting.

The amount of Sun light a hen is exposed to is how she tells the time of year. So yes your hens think it is Spring time, the normal or natural time of the year for hens to produce offspring and to make babies hens MUST lay eggs. Why not get a purposely bred breed of laying hen? These chickens never or almost never go broody. This will up your egg production by maybe 30%. A good breed of layer will be 85% productive or better as a mature hen. 50 layers X 85% = 42.5 eggs daily. Even better during the spring months.

 

[AmericanMom]

The amount of Sun light a hen is exposed to is how she tells the time of year. So yes your hens think it is Spring time, the normal or natural time of the year for hens to produce offspring and to make babies hens MUST lay eggs. Why not get a purposely bred breed of laying hen? These chickens never or almost never go broody. This will up your egg production by maybe 30%. A good breed of layer will be 85% productive or better as a mature hen. 50 layers X 85% = 42.5 eggs daily. Even better during the spring months.

Plans in place for this year to do just that... 90% of what I have is what I have hatched in the last 18 months so rethinking how I do things, I have did alittle research on hatching my own sex links, my problem is, my rooster is a welsummer.. If I go ahead and get RIR layers will that give me the sexlink I want or do I need a complete redo and get a RIR rooster??

Now even my EE's are going broody... of course, they are from jersey giant and orpington hens so yah... I'm screwed for the year lol...