Do chickens lay eggs if they come of age to lay in winter

chick4chooks

In the Brooder
Apr 4, 2015
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Hi there if my chickens are 5-6 month old and were meant to start laying in the next week or two would they still lay even though it is autumn and less daylight ?
 
Their pullet year they usually lay through the winter if they are the "heavy brown egglayers" from my experience. Bantams may take a break in winter.

The second year they usually will molt in fall/winter and take a break in laying.

Some breeds are better winter layers than others.

They need 14 hours of light per day to lay through winter, generally speaking, but I have had lots of chickens just lay through the winter in the pullet year.
 
It's going to be variable according to the hen. With production breeds, my experience has been the above. Spring Pullets start laying in the fall and through that first winter, slack off and molt around 18 months. If you supplement light you can bring them back to laying after they molt. Personally I let them take the winter off and they start back up in the spring.

I've had a pullet literally start laying on winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.
 

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