Light and eggs

[swatchick]

I have a flock of relatively old (3 years) hens. I just posted about some issues we're having, but I am wondering, as I enter the world of the older egg layer (which is fine with me, BTW, because they do enormous composting and soil turning work around here -- the eggs are a bonus), can you permanently put an end to laying by limiting the number of hours of light to something akin to wintertime? I'm wondering if I might reduce the likelihood of egg laying problems (which are already plaguing us) by purposely retiring them from egg laying. Thoughts?

 

[Happy Chooks]

You could, but it would force them into a molt, which might be tough on them. It would only be a temporary fix, as they would start laying again when they are finished molting. I have some 5 1/2 year old hens and they have pretty much stopped on their own.

 

[swatchick]

Thanks for your reply -- I wasn't thinking about that! Great point. I will just let things unfold...