How long will my girls lay?

[SarahF]

ok, so my girls are now 30 weeks and have been laying since August. It's getting below zero here at night and Im starting to think about water issues. My DH and I agreed when we got them that we'd have the chickens "taken care of" when it started to get cold, but now we've been giving our eggs away to family and they expect them. My DH likes giving the eggs away and thats great, but I still want to have them "Taken care of" and not have to think about the chickens thru the winter...
I know, sounds terrible of me. But, they aren't my pets anymore. THey arent nice to me and I'm 7 months pregnant and only getting bigger.

SO, now that ive vented a bit...how much longer can i expect them to lay until they take their rest? my DH says we'll keep them till they stop laying. Already, being darker earlier, the quantity of eggs is less by 1/3.
any ideas?

 

[akcskye]

Some girls will lay through the winter.

What breeds do you have?

Mine aren't laying at all, and I have SLW, Brahma, Australorp, and BO crosses of all but the Brahma.

The moms are laying age, but went broody first, then started laying, and a week later, began to molt, so no eggs again.

With production going down, unless you have some cold hardy layers...I would think they would stop within the next month.

 

[Wynette]

If you do consider "doing away with" your chickens, I'd urge you to try to rehome them first. There are probably plenty of folks here on BYC that would love to take them off your hands. Just a thought!

 

[SarahF]

i have barred rocks...told my husband about the daylight issue effecting how many they lay...and its so true! we collect eggs every two days and we 9 out of 10 times get 9 eggs. yesterday we got 7! but how long do they normaly lay for before they go 'broody'??