eating and laying less

[lablover]

I have pretty suddenly gone from getting 5 eggs a day (5 hens) to getting about 2/day. I've also noticed that the chickens have cut their food intake by about half. Is this normal?

 

[Ridersutton]

I'm not sure about the food intake bit, but I do know that my egg production has just dropped as well. I looked into it and it seems that shorter days + colder weather = Chickens laying less. If you want to keep it up, turn a light on that doesn't give off too much heat in their coop early in the morning before they come out and turn it off before dusk. It will trick them into thinking they have longer days than they do. Just make sure that the light goes off before it is dark out. If the light suddenly goes out then your chickens will have issues finding somewhere to roost at night. This has been working wonderfully for me so far.

 

[little farmer]

Yes, we are getting littler sunlight and hens need 12-14 hours of light to lay an egg, so that is probably your problem.

 

[lablover]

Ok, I knew that they would stop laying in late Fall/Winter, but I just wasn't sure if the drop in food intake went with that or was some other problem. They act fine and all, just eat less. I wasn't sure that since they're not laying, if they needed less feed.

 

[purplepaint]

Same here!!
My 4 girls have really cut back on their eating as well! I was expecting the egg production to slow in the fall/winter, but didn't know if eating less was normal....sounds like maybe it is?!
They are acting fine, but just eating a lot less feed.