How long should extreme cold weather affect laying?

[denisephd]

Before the "polar vortex" last week, we were averaging 11-13 eggs a day from our nine month old 13 Barred Rock and 3 Americauna's. Their coop is enclosed, but not insulated. Since the cold snap, I have been getting 1 - 3 eggs a day. I understand and expected the production to drop due to the extreme cold, as their energy was needed for staying warm and alive, but I expected production to have returned to normal by now. I have not been using light in the coop, as it was my understanding that pullets were not as affected by this and production was fine. Suggestions or experiences to share??

 

[TwoCrows]

The cold may have shut down the hormones enough to stop the laying in some of the hens. Some birds do shut down during the winter, especially after big cold snaps as we had recently. When they come back into lay depends on each hen. You will just have to wait it out.

 

[elfgirl]

I had a similar experience. We went from 12-14 a day to 3 a day. We're back up to about 8 now.We have 18 pullets that were laying. The australorps seem to be the last holdouts.

 

[deacons]

I have a mixed flock of 8, they kept laying at a rate of 6-7 per day all through the coldest of the cold. But, at the beginning of this week, when it had finally warmed up a lot but turned really rainy, they had a pretty big drop off, with two days in a row where I only got 4 eggs and shells were somewhat brittle. Yesterday, they were back up to 7. I assume this has to do with the stress of the weather changes, but they seem to be back on track now.

 

[denisephd]

Thanks for the input! It encourages me! I still only had three yesterday, but hopefully, they will be back to normal soon. At least we have had a number of sunny days.