If I dont use a light in the winter

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... I just started my lighting because somebody said so it would help if you had the breed.
 
How many eggs can you expect 18 hens to lay? Well, it depends...... LOL! How old are they? What breed? When did they last moult? If this is their first winter, they may well keep laying straight through the winter, especially if they're a production breed of chicken, meaning their breed was developed for laying an egg a day for a year or two before they lose their feathers in a moult. Mine did just that last winter.
This year, my ISA Browns are beginning to moult and the number of eggs I've been getting is down to 5-6 a day. When they've regrown their feathers they'll begin laying better. I give them a little extra protein right now to help their feathers grow in well (BOSS, meat scraps, etc).
If you supplement the daylight hours with extra light in their coop in the evening and early morning, you will extend their laying season. Some people hang an incandescent light bulb from the coop ceiling, but I wanted a lower wattage, higher light volume solution so I chose an LED light strip normally used for underneath a cabinet. It's tacked high up on the inside wall of their coop where it can't be knocked down and cause a fire.
 

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