How long after molting should egg laying resume?

[CacklingRanch]

@EggSighted4Life

Well if you want to get technical yes I was talking about daylight. 14-16 hours.

However it takes much longer than that for a hen to actually produce those final products.

The egg starts as an ova, eventually forming into a yolk, then all the outer layers are added. Finally the “paint” should the breed put any on. This full process can take from days to weeks depending on the hen. The yolk being formed is one of the final steps and from there to egg is about 24-26 hours.

I’m not new to the site but thank you. I originally joined in 2008/2009 but I lost that logIn after a small hiatus due to family problems. I’ve owned chickens my entire life and grew up on a poultry farm. I don’t know everything, but I’m not green either.

I simply was suggesting for a hen to exert the energy it takes to produce an egg, she needed more light. Less light means less likely for hens to lay eggs (again, for many factors). Shorter light and shorter daylight mean less time to forage and evolution came up with a fix to that problem that even modern hens haven’t had bred out of them.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Shorter light and shorter daylight mean less time to forage

Yes, that's a good reason that may not often be considered as a side effect and how much impact it does have...

Sorry for family problems, they usually stink. Glad you made it back!

Oh, and today is the shortest day of the year... light starts increasing from here.

 

[CacklingRanch]

Yes!

So back to the OP's topic... you should start seeing more eggs as the next few days drive on. Several of our girls have started laying again. My Java's are the first coming out of the short days to give me eggs, typically. Got one from them today. The only egg I got today out of 200+ hens.

 

[mountainbunny]

Thanks everyone. The molt has been an interesting new 1st experance in my chicken raising. I'm not sure if it's been more stressful for them or me! The best thing about it is finally seeing all those beautiful new feathers. All of them had a little bit of rooster damage which is now finally recovered... Except for one of my poor BO's , her whole back was completely bare and now she only has about a two inch spot bright above her tail that is still bare but I see pin feathers coming in now. It's nice having my fluffy girls back.

 

[CacklingRanch]

Thanks everyone. The molt has been an interesting new 1st experance in my chicken raising. I'm not sure if it's been more stressful for them or me! The best thing about it is finally seeing all those beautiful new feathers. All of them had a little bit of rooster damage which is now finally recovered... Except for one of my poor BO's , her whole back was completely bare and now she only has about a two inch spot bright above her tail that is still bare but I see pin feathers coming in now. It's nice having my fluffy girls back.

Yay!!!

 

[pclark17]

Three of my four hens are about 15 months old, one of which (our BR) went through a pretty hard molt about 6 weeks ago. She has since gotten the majority of her feathers back but is still not sure about coming to me as she always has. The 2 RIR's have never shown any sign of a molt and have continued to lay on a fairly regular basis. We also have a 8/9 month old GLW who has been a pretty consistent layer through the shorter days. She has typically laid for a day or two, takes a day or two off and then back at it. I am surprised the RIR's have remained as productive as they have and never shown any indication of a molt. Hopefully the BR will be back to full strength and begin laying again soon. I have never provided additional light but have supplemented our winter feed with a higher protein level, scrambled egg scraps, cooked meat and all of that goes very quickly between the four. I am just hopeful that my BR who is usually a lap pet warms back up to me soon. A belated Happy New Year to everyone, here is to a great 2018!

 

[mountainbunny]

Only one of my 5 hens is laying right now. They started molting about mid October. I look forward to them all starting back up on the egg laying. Right now I'm just thrilled to see all their beautiful new feathers! All of then had rooster damage over the summer. One of my BO's was completely bald on her back from the damage, I thought her feathers would never grow back. She and the others all have nice full coats again. . I don't add light or heat to the coop and they are doing just fine. I've just been feeding them a higher protein feed and occasionally giving them protein treats like scrambled eggs and such.