Hen's not Laying? Chickens Require 14+ hours of light to keep laying

[CDennis]

My hens slowed down last winter but they didn't stop. I always said if they did I would give them a break since they work so hard all year. But now that I am not eating yummy eggs....I am starting to eat my words! At least 5 of my hens are molting, I hope that when they stop maybe I will get a few eggs a week. I have always thought that it was odd chickens choice of time to loose feathers, for me, I would take 105 in the summer. Not 25 in the winter. -Cortney

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I agree. I don't add light, but I have a breed known to be good winter layers. My girls got a good long break while they molted. According to my records, egg production started dropping in late August and lasted thru the end October; which is about the time the last girl finished feathering out.
My egg average for the past week has been 7 eggs a day from my 13 hens. So far, today I've gotten 8 eggs.
It's been unseasonably mild so far this winter. When we get hit with a long stetch of dreary overcast days I expect another slowdown, but that's okay.
We designed our coop to take advantage of every bit of natural light and we're letting the girls do what comes naturally.

 

[MammaHen]

OK, here's the deal. I have about 110 chickens (RIR's, Boschveld (African cross breed) and barred rocks) and I'm not getting a SINGLE egg. Up until a couple of months ago I was getting trays and trays a week. And now? Not even one silly stupid little egg. Now I understand the whole winter thing but they stopped laying about 2 month ago and we've only just gone into winter here. Sunrise is about 7am and sunset is about 6pm at the mo. In winter the temp is never below about 12 deg Celsius and its not like we get metres of snow or anything (in fact never seen snow!) This is Africa for crying in a bucket! They are completely free range supplemented with layers pellets. They are all different ages. I have medicated their roosts as well as theirs bodies individually for mites/lice. And while I understand they might slow down, even ALOT, surely I would be getting one little, tiny miserable egg EVERY now and then? They hang around our pigs alot and I'm wondering if they might have worms. Do chickens get worms and if so could this affect their laying? They are costing a fortune in feed and I've gotta buy eggs......mmm.....their days are numbered I tell you....x

 

[RM44]

Could the pigs be finding and eating the eggs? Have you ever been able to identify a bird that is about to lay? Try following her around to see if she does (when she starts singing her egg song?) Or do you have a way of cooping up a few of them for observation to see if you get eggs from some under confinement?

I love the way you phrase your words, btw. I haven't heard "for crying in a bucket" before. I love your pretty tone in your writing.

Good luck finding out what's going on with your chickens.

 

[MammaHen]

Thanks for your suggestions. The pigs eating them has crossed our minds (and believe me there has been some serious debate in this family over the egg debacle recently) and we've also considered badgers, rats etc, but considering the amount of layers I have we would surely have seen even one every now and then before they were snatched by any no good vermin. The other clue is that their egg boxes have even got cobwebs in....

In the meantime, my DH and I have come up with a crafty little plan to fox them into laying again. We're gonna lock them all up in a one of our empty feed sheds with all the laying pellets they could desire, lots of fresh cosy little laying boxes, and maybe some extra lighting (2 or 3 hrs extra a day). We going to give them ONE MONTH and not a day longer. If I'm not eating homegrown scrambled eggs at the end of that, its TO THE FREEZER WITH THEM!

Forgive me if I'm sounding a little heartless but I'm truly over any animal on this farm earning not earning its keep. No more cutesy wootsey. No more pets, no more names. Just recipes. x

 

[RM44]

I don't blame you a bit. I'm sure you're going to find that they're laying and something's happening to the eggs. Surely 110 chickens would be laying a few eggs; huh?

 

[Kimsfarm]

Just checking on the issue of egg laying reduction in the winter...I have coops that are the tractor style with runs attached that are exposed to sun with smaller coop area. When you are talking about artificial light, are you talking about enclosed coops or coops in barns?

 

[brownrigg]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post. we have four hens of different breeds (RIR, Cookoo Marin, Langshire, not sure on one) they have not layed a single egg in over a week. They are all about 3 1/2 years old. Their production was close to 4 eggs a day prior to the Cookoo going broody which seemed to mess up the others. Now, we have no eggs. They are on a 22% protein laying pellets and some fresh scraps. The girls get out of their coop and run almost daily.

One chicken (the hen that was broody) is also molting.

Is it time to get new hens?

We are in Albuquerque New Mexico.

thanks,

brownrigg

 

[NonnasBabies]

Quote:
This is what I do. They go get on the roost at dusk like they always do. They don't stay on the ground!!

 

[BrewedInNh]

We weren't going to add light at first, we figured on just waiting to see if they stop laying. Well, it's dark when we leave for work and dark when we get home now, so I realized that I need to add light so we can see enough to change their water and refill their food. As long as I'm adding a light it might as well be on a timer and serve to maintain 14 hours of light for the chickens.

Their coop is only 4' x 6', and well insulated so I don't want to add heat, and I was a little concerned about the chance of fire with an incandescent bulb too. Last week I went to the hardware store and decided to get some LED rope lighting, like you see under some deck railings. It's very energy efficient, doesn't get hot, and weather proof. I was looking for a 6 ft strand, but they only had 18 ft lengths. I figured it would be brighter than necessary, but no big deal.

I hung the rope lights on cup hooks along the top of the walls around the inside perimeter of the coop. It's on a timer that comes on at 3am and shuts off at 7am.

Sunday morning was the first time using the lights, and DW asked if I planned to get up to make sure the lights came on as scheduled. I assured her I had no intentions of getting up at 3am. Well, in the middle of the night I woke up to a racket coming from the coop. I looked at the clock and sure enough it was 3:05am, so I went to the window to see what was going on. Every one of the chickens was out in the run pacing back and forth, squacking their heads off. The light was BEAMING out of the windows and vents. DW got up to see and said it was brighter than the Vegas strip.

They got used to it pretty quick, and haven't made any noise in the morning since.