@Shadrach
An old topic I read bc I found the title interesting.
I found that food has impact on laying in winter too.
I got this info from a Dutch reliable source. :
There are chicken farmers who have to keep the chickens laying during the winter. With hemp and nettle seed, the chickens would even lift their winter hiatus. The digital magazine Aviculture Europe has looked up four centuries of literature to find out where this chicken wisdom comes from.
While the learned chicken connoisseurs in the sixteenth century were not—some reciprocal even those containing large amounts to sterility—still a majority for the proposition that hens fed hemp for a long time lay eggs through the winter. Nettle seed is said to have the same effect.
From : https://www.levendehave.nl/dierenwikis/pluimvee/kippen-de-winter.
I did give my flock hemp seed one winter after reading this. But only one hen was laying all winter. Maybe I was too late and it could work if you start feeding hemp or nettle seed from autumn.
Another person on this forum (@chickengr ) claims you can also give peppers if I rememer correctly.
An old topic I read bc I found the title interesting.
I found that food has impact on laying in winter too.
I got this info from a Dutch reliable source. :
There are chicken farmers who have to keep the chickens laying during the winter. With hemp and nettle seed, the chickens would even lift their winter hiatus. The digital magazine Aviculture Europe has looked up four centuries of literature to find out where this chicken wisdom comes from.
While the learned chicken connoisseurs in the sixteenth century were not—some reciprocal even those containing large amounts to sterility—still a majority for the proposition that hens fed hemp for a long time lay eggs through the winter. Nettle seed is said to have the same effect.
From : https://www.levendehave.nl/dierenwikis/pluimvee/kippen-de-winter.
I did give my flock hemp seed one winter after reading this. But only one hen was laying all winter. Maybe I was too late and it could work if you start feeding hemp or nettle seed from autumn.
Another person on this forum (@chickengr ) claims you can also give peppers if I rememer correctly.
