Ok,
I will take a stab at this. If you want your hens to lay
best during the winter you need to have two things. A March-hatched female and sprouted oats. Sussex are historically bred to be an excellent winter-laying breed This is because they are an English breed and in England, the 1st big Holiday of the year is Derby Day. Fattened poultry were/are a huge feast item on Derby Day. So one reason the Sussex became such a fine winter layer was to lay eggs and raise chicks early in the year so they would be fattened and ready for the Derby Day market. Sussex are raised all year round in England, but the best winter layers are March-hatched birds.
On to part 2. If you want to bring your females into lay you need to feed them sprouted oats. Not just any sprouted oat. You need to sprout
forage oats ( like the kind they plant in pastures for livestock to forage on or in feed plots for deer to eat. ( Plotspike is my fav brand {Tractor Supply Company}).
Not Feed oats like they give horses to eat in the barns. Sprouted oats are interesting. From 1 thru 3 days old they are considered
Grain Feed. They are fed as part of the daily ration for the birds. On the 4th day, a nutritional change takes place in the oat sprout and they become
Green Feed. Now they are fed as a supplement to the daily ration. Feed spouts 4-7 days old. There is no advantage to growing them older than 7 days. They do not become more nutritious after 7 days old. After the sprouts are 7 days old, I do not feed them because there is a larger chance they might go bad. The spouts should feel and smell fresh. If they look or feel slimy or off-color/off-smell, throw them out and start again.
It is this Green Feed which helps bring your hens into lay. It also helps the male create more robust sperm so the chicks he fathers are more robust. Each adult bird should get one cubic inch of green feed sprouted oats per day. There are a bunch of methods for sprouting them. All easy. See pages 24 thru 29 of this thread for all kinds of sprouting methods:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/425134/anybody-raise-sprouts-to-feed-the-chickens/230
. Forage oats have been proven thru scientific studies to be the absolute best seed to spout for poultry for these purposes.
I keep my birds under lights 24/7 in the winter from first freeze to last freeze ( beg. of Nov. to mid-March). I have a 4'x6'x4'high coop and use an 85 watt bulb in the rafters. This keeps the cocks comb from freezing. I do not worry about lengthening or shortening days, they just get light 24/7. Now I have read this is not normal and the night time is a good thing. But I would rather have unfrozen combs than a hassle with augmenting the daylight.
Best,
Karen
Waterford English Light Sussex
in western PA, USA
