Do all chickens slow down egg production in the winter?

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no-roo-stew

no-roo-stew

Hatching
6 Years
5 Years
Jan 23, 2014
9
1
9
Western Connecticut
Hello All,
New to the site, my name is Chris, and thought it might be a good place to answer some of my questions. I am a second time chicken hand, my first flock was killed by a raccoon family when the pullets were 4 month old.
I learned a lot with them and remedied my short comings in my planning, namely an automatic coop door.
Got the new flock at one day old on October 1, 2012. My hens are 16 months old now and they have given me roughly 5 eggs a day with 8 ladies. Now I'm down to 2 or 3 a day for the last 2 months. Is this normal for winter or is it the excessively cold winter we all are having? I have a 40W lamp in the hen house on a timer that provides them roughly 12 hours of combined light. Always ample food and a 3 gallon water font over a ceramic heater.

Thanks for any ideas and comments.

Chris.
 
It isn't a matter of the cold weather as much as the darkness of winter. We're below zero, night after night yet our pullets are laying very well. We provide no supplemental heat at all.

First year pullets generally lay well through their first winters. Second winter? Not so much. The birds just rest. They'll lay again as the days grow longer in daylight again. This is nature. The chicken has a light receptor in their skull and it regulates the ovarian function. You have a choice. Add a few hours of light "therapy" or just wait until longer days of spring.
 
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Great to have you aboard and enjoy BYC!
 
no-roo-stew said:
Hello All,
New to the site, my name is Chris, and thought it might be a good place to answer some of my questions. I am a second time chicken hand, my first flock was killed by a raccoon family when the pullets were 4 month old.
I learned a lot with them and remedied my short comings in my planning, namely an automatic coop door.
Got the new flock at one day old on October 1, 2012. My hens are 16 months old now and they have given me roughly 5 eggs a day with 8 ladies. Now I'm down to 2 or 3 a day for the last 2 months. Is this normal for winter or is it the excessively cold winter we all are having? I have a 40W lamp in the hen house on a timer that provides them roughly 12 hours of combined light. Always ample food and a 3 gallon water font over a ceramic heater.

Thanks for any ideas and comments.

Chris.
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I read that they require 14 hours of light to keep them going and that it takes a couple weeks of that to get them going again. Add z couple hours and see if that helps. Also, fermented feed is suppose to help. I just started fermenting last week so I can't say yet if it helps.
 
Hi, Chris, welcome to BYC. It's time for your hens to take a break. Their age plus shortened day length are impacting their egg laying. They will resume egg laying as the day length increases.
 

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