How to regulate egg laying

[CanuckChickFarm]

Hi, i live in Eastern Canada, so cold snowy winters. My issue is my girls lay crazy good in the winter and come spring / summer when i need the good egg production they drop off. Also summers here can get quite warm and egg production seems to go down again. Ive recently tried eliminating light in coop but i do need to keep a red heat lamp going so their water wont freeze.

Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Stravager]

If it gets too hot in the summer egg production will drop in response to heat stress. Some folks have set up misting stations, cooling fans, etc to help with the temperature in the run/coop.

 

[FrostRanger]

Aside from eliminating light not much you can do. Do be careful with heat lamps though as all it takes is a stray feather getting in there to possibly start a coop fire. In the name of safety I would look at alternative means of keeping the water unfrozen (such as heated water bowls)

 

[NatJ]

My issue is my girls lay crazy good in the winter and come spring / summer when i need the good egg production they drop off. Also summers here can get quite warm and egg production seems to go down again. Ive recently tried eliminating light in coop but i do need to keep a red heat lamp going so their water wont freeze.

People usually complain that their hens lay well in the summer, but take a break in the winter when the days get shorter.

If yours have light at all times in the winter (heat lamp for the water), I wonder if they experience the spring as having "shorter" days, and that is why they lay fewer eggs then?

You might consider some other kind of water heater that does not make light. That would let you control the amount of light separately from the water heat. You could aim for the same amount of light and dark that they will get when the weather is warm enough that you turn off the heat, so they do not experience the days getting "shorter" when that happens.