Greetings from central Virginia

[feltingfrenzy]

Greetings to all,

Been raising guinea fowl for many years, and decided to switch to chickens. The guineas have been re-homed, the coop is clean, and the brooder is ready for an August 14th shipment of Barred Rocks and Silver Laced Wyandottes chicks.

I chose these two breeds because they are a dual breed, good layers year round (my main focus is eggs for consumption) and to be honest: I liked their looks.

I'm going to jump right in with a question. Because both breeds lay during cold weather, should I still supplement the light in the coop for 15 hours; or, do they not need that? If they do need it, do I begin the extra light at their 5-6 month age (so they don't begin laying too young)?

Thanks, and looking forward to being part of the backyard chicken community,

Nan

 

[fiveladybugs]

Welcome from the Northern Neck of Virginia

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas and

! Sorry that I can't help you with your question. You might post it over on the Chicken Behavior and Egg Laying forum - you should get plenty of good info there. Best of luck to you!

 

[teach1rusl]

Welcome from Indiana!

This first year you shouldn't need any supplemental light for sure. Does your coop have windows? Being able to take advantage of natural light helps a lot IMO. My original girls are three years old, and other than molting times (which can last several weeks), have laid well through the winter months w/out supplemental light (but my coop has windows). I'm still getting 4-5 eggs a week from them now, so am interested to see how they'll do THIS winter outside of the molting window...

 

[ghillie]

 

[Kevin565]

 

[weimarmama]

&

from Alabama. Glad you joined us.

 

[sumi]

Hello and welcome to BYC

My hens continued laying well through winter, some even started laying mid-winter, but they are a bunch of mixed breeds.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Hi and from Ohio. So glad to have you aboard.

 

[kidcody]

from washington state glad you joined us