getting those stubborn girls to start laying AGAIN!!!!!

[Chickjen]

AMAZING, thanks, gonna try it out!

 

[A HappyHenLover]

Thanks for the info, I've been trying to get my hens back to laying their true amount, I never knew that cayenne could help, I tried oregano flakes but they were really strong smelling.

 

[Rowdie]

Can we think about the mechanics of this a second? So egg production slows in winter and picks back up in spring and people are attributing this to the temp. Well if it's a temp thing, why would egg farms not all be in the south? If I get more eggs out of the chickens by warming things up, I'd move my operation south.

All the stories I heard about impacting a hens production had to do with controlling light. The tale of 364 eggs in 365 days, the comment isn't "without a heater" it's, "without artificial lighting."

If you have your hens in a coup, which many of you do, instead of pepper to warm the hens insides, why not a heat source in the coup?

I've read stories on here about chicken diapers, how 'bout a hen hoodie? Keep the gal warm so she'll start laying eggs.

The idea that the mechanism by which pepper fed to the hen restarts egg production is heat provided seems pretty far fetched.
If temp was the thing there should be ways to really make that happen, some kind of warmer in the coup, some kind of warmer in the water like those used for tropical fish. Put 'em in a green house.

I'd try light first. A few mentioned timed lights in the hen house. Maybe set it up on both end, sun up earlier and sun down later. Get some nice UV lamps

I tried my google kung fu on the subject and it's clearly weak as 90 percent of the links came here....

*edit* I took the Bing challenge and...

"Laying eggs takes a lot out of a hen physically, it depletes vital nutrients and diverts a large portion of dietary calories away from other uses in the hen's body. Most chickens, therefore are wired to produce eggs at the fastest rate when there is a good chance that any resulting offspring would survive to maturity. In the northern part of the United States, that means they slow down their egg-production as the days get shorter and winter approaches.
Fortunately, the cycle is determined by one controllable factor, the amount of light the chickens receive each day. By adding an artificial light source to the chicken coop, we can fool the chickens' metabolisms into thinking the days are not getting shorter at all. By providing 14 hours a day of light, we can maintain a steady rate of egg production throughout the winter."

Now this isn't about restarting the chicken early come spring, but I would say it indicates that heat is not the answer but rather light. Start artificially increasing your chickens' light and that should restart production.
I'd still note this doesn't mean pepper doesn't work, but it'd probably be some chemical mechanism not heat.

 

[groverlvchx]

Well, red peppers flakes in the food won't burn the coop down...

 

[Daze N Paradise]

LOL, groverlvchx!!!! Our hens have not been laying lately and had problems with losing feathers. Sold a few, put some in a different pen to cut down on overcrowding. Changed brand of feed. Bought diatomaceous earth just in case they have parasites. Now I'm gonna give them cayenne pepper!!! It sounds like it would work, and we are excited to try it. They are just 1 1/2 years old, so we don't think they have finished laying.

 

[groverlvchx]

Mine are molting so they stopped laying. They can't do both. I'm supplementing extra protein to help get through this (hopefully) faster. I miss eggs!!