How much does daylight affect egglaying

[ShelleyN]

My three girls laid and egg a day since they were 19 weeks old UNTIL the very first first feather fell out to start the molt for the BO and SLW. Our BR hasn't dropped one feather yet and hasn't missed a day laying. At first I thought it was day length, but in hind site know they stopped the exact day their first feather fell out for the molt. I hope they start giving the occasional egg after they get their feathers back. One a day isn't cutting it around here!

 

[GardenGal]

We're in WA state, and so far none of our new layers - they started in August - have missed a day, even though they have no additional light. We have RIR and BR mixes, and still get double yolks from the RIRs. I don't plan to give them more light.

 

[annep]

I have some RIRs that have been laying well, but my goldens have not..I"ve gone from 7 eggs a day, to 1-3..Since I started putting light on them, I've gotten anywhere from 3-6...so, things are slowly improving

 

[ChicKat]

Mia Culpa, I'm one of the people that quoted the 14-hours, and Fred's Hens is right, they don't need 14 hours, and that did probably originate in production egg-farming facilities that push the hens for optimum production. With no artificial lighting, our egg production had hardly dropped to a noticable degree.

With a quick check of eggzy, I have:
101 eggs in the last 30-days.
22.83 eggs per week avg.

This is from 4-layers. Golden Comet 6-7 eggs per week (she took a rare day off yesterday), Ideal 236 lays 6 (she's been laying 1-month) and the balance is made up by my two BPRs. you cannot tell in the least that I'm proud of these chooks by the way I brag on them, can you??

Our daylight hours now are 10 hours and 36 minutes. I think that the longer hours of darkness mean less nutrition for the hens and that contributes to less laying. If they can get food activity (sheesh, fewer bugs, less grass to nibble) then perhaps their production dosen't slump quite as much. -- feed, feed, feed them.

ETA: were I as far noth as Fred's Hens, I think I would consider light supplementation in exactly the way he describes, add light to the morning --

 

[SarniaTricia]

I had the covered run lights on 24/7, but that stopped today. One of my girls got up at 3am and started shouting (not signing) the egg song!
Woke us up out of a dead sleep. I had to pull on a robe and boots and run out and shut the lights off.
We are going to a timer, TODAY.
The offending party:

 

[CarolJ]

We have 7 pullets - all 9 months old. They started laying in July/August - and I regularly got 6 or 7 eggs per day through mid-October. The last month, though, two of my EEs and my Jersey Giant have virtually stopped laying altogether. One has laid exactly 3 eggs in the past three weeks! I still get 2 or 3 and sometimes 4 eggs a day from the flock - although one day this past week I only got 1.

We have a light on a timer in the coop. It comes on at 4:00 each morning. By 4:00 each evening, they are already on the roost since it gets dark here around 4:30 each afternoon. My NHR, Ancona and one other EE are the ones who continue to lay almost every day. My husband says the chickens are probably rebelling against having that light come on so early each morning. Production couldn't drop too much more - so maybe I'll turn off the timer and let nature take its course. I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for my family yesterday and almost completely used up the eggs I already had. So if production doesn't increase, I might have to resort to buying eggs - horrors!

I've got lots more chicks growing up. Hopefully soon I'll have enough layers that I won't have to be concerned about giving out of eggs.

I had to look it up, but I'm on the 36th parallel. LOL!

 

[LN2008]

I read some where that chickens can be afraid of the dark. I am putting some solar lights (rope lights to be exact) on the inside of the coop. I'm not expecting them to get a full 14 hours, but every little bit helps

 

[ECBW]

Hi, OP here with an update. Production rate has been holding steady in the past 2 weeks. The breeds that stopped 2 weeks ago continue to "rest". Daylight is about 9.5 hours but substantially shorter in rainy days. Temperature has been unseasonably warm. We are still all natural - no artificial light.

A side experiment... my Silkie developed a swollen crop a few months ago. Based on something I read on BYC, I started to add apple cider vinegar to their water 2 to 3 times a week. Her condition has improved. I also notice that overall, the chicken poops are more solid.

 

[ECBW]

We made it through winter solstice. This where we are with the experiment: the production held steady, in terms of number of eggs. The sources have been changing.

EE stopped laying. RIR, BR and SLW slowed a little. But, my old Production Red (2.75 yr) resumed laying at a much slower rate after 1-1/2 months of rest. Silkie also resumed laying. 2.75 year-old Leghorn got all new feathers but has not resumed production.

Conclusion, they will continue to lay without artificial light, breed dependant and widely. I also noticed that if the weather is nicer (sunnier or warmer), more eggs were laid.

Since I am still getting enough for my family, I probably will stay the course.

 

[LN2008]

I just installed a solar powered rope light inside of my coop. I'm not 100% sure it'll affect egglaying, but I've heard that hens are usually more comfortable in coops that are somewhat lit, like a nightlight. This may be due to their vision, which is quite different than a human's. My girls are at the age where they may start laying soon, but they aren't quite there. So I have no idea how much light affects their egglaying.

For some reason I forgot I double posted. Sorry!