How do I stop my hens from laying in the winter?

[3KillerBs]

The older ones may molt strongly this fall and stop laying for a while.

I would never restrict feed myself. Chickens are very good at self-regulating their intake.

 

[Chicalina]

yes you need enough feed for them to keep themselves warm at night. Also, where higher status hens can restrict access to feed when it's rationed per bird, so the lower status ones don't get enough.

 

[Iluveggers]

My birds that lay year round are:

3 Buff Orpingtons, & 3 Project Wheaten Crele Orpingtons.

4 Easter Eggers

2 Brahmas

8 Silkies Bantam, & Largefowl

A Black Copper Marans

A Red JungleFowl/hybrid X Silkie mix

A Marans/Gamefowl mix X Orpington cross

An Easter Egger/Brahma cross

A Buff Orpington/Barred Rock X RIR

I might be missing a couple. I woke up around 4:00am.

Which breeds do you have that stop laying in the winter? (Just for comparison sake & im interested!)

 

[MysteryChicken]

Which breeds do you have that stop laying in the winter? (Just for comparison sake & im interested!)

D'uccles, Old English Game Bantams, & Red JungleFowl hybrids.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I have a variety of breeds and all my birds in their 2nd laying season and up stop laying during winter. Most likely because our days are very short, down to about 8 hours of daylight around December.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

just concerned for them having enough energy in winter rather than bumping up the amount of feed in case it a) attracts vermin or b) puts strain

Do your chickens not have a feeder with pellets available to them at all times during the day where they can help themselves? If they do, then there is no need to increase their feed during the winter, just keep the feeder full all the time. If the feeder is suspended from a rafter it is less likely to attract mice, I believe. You can also do a search here on "no-waste feeders," you will find many options. I made one out of a 5-gallon bucket and some PVC elbows. It worked so well I made another from a big Rubbermaid trash barrel and more PVC elbows. We just dump the pellets straight from the bags into the feeder, works great! Good luck!

 

[Chicalina]

Do your chickens not have a feeder with pellets available to them at all times during the day where they can help themselves? If they do, then there is no need to increase their feed during the winter, just keep the feeder full all the time. If the feeder is suspended from a rafter it is less likely to attract mice, I believe. You can also do a search here on "no-waste feeders," you will find many options. I made one out of a 5-gallon bucket and some PVC elbows. It worked so well I made another from a big Rubbermaid trash barrel and more PVC elbows. We just dump the pellets straight from the bags into the feeder, works great! Good luck!

Do post some pics please!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Do post some pics please!

Will do so Sunday. I'm out from sundown Friday till sundown Saturday.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Do post some pics please!

Here you go, this is the big one:

I used Gorilla tape or some such to anchor the 4" ID PVC street elbows into the holes I cut with my jig saw; I taped them both on the inside (best I could) and outside of the barrel. The elbows need to be a good inch or more above the bottom of the barrel. I braced them with wooden blocks to hold them in place while taping. A hot glue gun might have worked better, had my holes actually been round and the elbows fit snugly. Execution was not nearly as good as concept, lol. But hey, it works! Don't recall if I mentioned the worst varmint getting into my chicken feed was Gracie, my 10-yo Sheltie. She was eating me out of coop and home when we were using an open feeder, and packing on the pounds as well, although I kept restricting her own diet. This feeder works great. The chickens can't bill the feed out, so as far as I know we don't have rodents. We just dump feed out of the sacks right into the barrel and it holds about two bags.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Bit of a weird one here.

I've six hens of various breeds- two rhode island reds, a bluebell, a marbar, a buff-barred-rock and one that is potentially an astrolorp.

They have total free range of our garden year round, about an acre, and are free to forage etc. on top of their daily feed of layers pellets.

They're all relatively healthy birds (had a bit of a scare with bluebell last year but she's fine now) and they all get wormed by hand once a month.

The problem we have is that they lay almost year round, including through the winter. They don't stop until around April, which is when they all gradually stop laying eggs for a couple of weeks or so.

I want to try and fix their annual cycle so that this break is during the winter, so that they have more energy for bad weather and the like as winters here are very unpredictable and there is less insect life to forage for.

Any ideas?

That’s weird that your chickens lay year round. My chickens usually start slowing down in August, molt in September thru October and November,by November no eggs until January.