So we got HAMMERED by Hurricane Sandy meeting with that cold front. I can't even go into how bad it got here, but the power was out for almost 13 days and we had 3-4 feet of snow and that wasn't even in drifts! So needless to say, Duke and his 24 girls were stuck in their house for all those days without any light :-( I know it sounds so horrible, but there was absolutely nothing we could do or we would have in every way. As soon as the power was restored, we got the heat lamps on during the night and the regular light on during the day and we cleaned out all of their boxes (for some reason my boxes do NOT prevent them from roosting on them so I need to change that a bit, and we even shoveled out the heaviest snow ever to where they could get out in the lot. Well out of 24 egg laying aged, only 3 over 1 yr old and all breeds known for heavy, regular laying all year around, we're getting 1 egg a day! We finally got 3 tonight, but it's usually been being 1! I didn't think much of it being there was no light for so long, but they always had water and feed and shelter/safety. I figured that was more important than eggs. But now, what is the issue? Why are they not back to laying more regularly? Am I correct that the reason the laying stopped is because lack of light and being cold? But I was told Ambers, Red stars, Orpingtons, and Australorps were all god winter layers so it shouldn't all be from the cold, right? They are eating a TON, like way WAY more than you would think, especially for not getting any eggs. Any suggestions? We really need some help. Thanks!
