Drop in egg production? About Supplemental Light in the Coop...

[BellaBlue]

we have snow alrady in connecticut tonight! i dont use lighting thou i was told not to because u shouldnt force them to lay eggs to quickly and all my chcikens are young.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
While there are certainly other reasons for a drop in egg production, I don't think that coop color or a quick shift in over night temps are two of them. I would dial back the treats, especially the scratch. Commercially produced chicken feed is nutritionally complete. Chicken scratch should be thought of as chicken candy and given sparingly, infrequently.

Worms and molting are two of the most common reasons for a drop in egg production. Molting just so happens to occur around this time of year when the days are shorter.

 

[ECBW]

From OP:

"Sunlight fades gradually and at dusk chickens prepare to settle into their favorite roosting spots before darkness falls. Chickens have poor night vision and cannot find their roosts in the dark. Adding supplemental light at the end of the day, allows no transition time for them to get positioned for sleeping. This can cause confusion, stress and possible panic leading to injuries. It is better to light the coop in the morning as they will not object to instant sunrise."

Good point. My observation indicates that the chickens start to roost as the sun is setting. If light is on, they would sit on the roost wondering why the sunset is taking so long. I read that the point of lighting is so chickens continue to feed and lay. If just sitting, it is not meeting the objective. Pre-dawn lighting gets them off the roost and feed.

I have been using pre-dawn lights because that is what the pros do. There are hobbyists, not concern with egg production, claim that letting chickens rest over winter is better.

Well, this year, since I have brand new layers (started in August), I plan go with out lighting to see if and when production starts to slow. So far, the day light is about 11 hours, and has not affected the production rate.

 

[zekii]

This is our 1st year with poultry, we did start noticing a drop in egg production, we plan to give the hens a rest period, but want enough eggs
for baking and such through he holidays, so we put a in the coup, comes on at 3AM, off at 7Am, and the egg productions seems to have picked up, but the time
of laying has moved to afternoon vs late morning. Come the end of December we'll remove the supplemental light and let the egg production drop.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
It takes approximately 25 hours to produce an egg, so it is natural that hens will lay a little later in the day over time and then perhaps skip a day. You're noticing the egg-laying cycle in action as they lay their eggs later in the day than previously.

 

[dragonlair]

I give my hens a break, letting them stop or slow production while they molt and get ready for winter. I make sure they get plenty of calcium and Vit D while on "break" so they will be ready for another year of production. In late December, I start putting the lights on so they start laying again and keep the lights until the days are naturally long enough.

 

[dragonlair]

Mine are molting and egg production is almost at an end. Where I was getting 20+ eggs a day, I am now getting 1 or 2. We are down to less that 12 hours of light a day and the chicken area is under the shadow of trees, so it gets darker faster anyway.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
It's simple enough to reverse that if you're interested in supplying additional hours of light to their coop in the morning.