ISA Brown winter egg laying.

[A Chicken Owner]

My ISA Brown is 16 months old and is only laying 2 eggs a week. I'm from Australia so it's winter here. Is this normal for an ISA Brown? I know ISA Brown's lay 300 eggs in their first year of egg laying but my ISA has only been laying for 10 months. I know egg production slows in winter but is it normally this severe? Any thoughts?

 

[Fred's Hens]

In winter, the sunlight dwindles to less than 9 hours, for us. I'm not sure your hours of sunlight, but it being near your winter solstice, you've got to be at you least amount of sunlight days. This is tough on the layer. Most folks supplement the birds lighting by supplying them with artificial light, on a timer set to come on at 5 am and snap off at 9 am. This doesn't take a large wattage, just 40 watts give or take. This therapy takes about 2 weeks to have effect, but it does work.

Supplemental lighting is used to get those 300 eggs of which you speak.

 

[A Chicken Owner]

I have a light in the shed but I don't like stressing out my hens.. My question is: Is 2 eggs a week normal? We get 10 hours of sunlight here during winter.