Night time winter laying?

[Boonie Stomper]

So no eggs all day January 1 from either hen that is currently laying, and I'm thinking it's just too cold. Then at lockup time, sundown, and they're fighting to lay in the nest at the same time. It is in the teens F. Aren't chickens smart enough to either not lay or do in the daytime?
Update - they both just laid and I stole from under 2nd gal both still hot/warm!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Temperature and time of day really are irrelevant.
Once a chicken ovulates, the egg will come in about 25 hours. They can't change that with their thinking.
When a woman has a baby, she can't will the time of day or temperature when she goes into labor.
Once an egg is laid, it will take at least an hour before the next ovulation. That means for a week or so the eggs are laid in the morning, then each day thereafter, the eggs come a couple hours later until the next egg would come after dusk. That egg (and the rest that would come during the night) won't come till the following morning.
For the next week or so, they'll come in the morning and then come later each day.

 

[I Love Layers]

Chickens will lay at different times. I have a few that lay at 4-6AM. It also has to deal with how many hours of sunlight they are getting amd how that adds up
It has nothing to do with th being smart.

 

[Boonie Stomper]

Thanks! For a moment there was the dreaded thought of frozen eggs for the next few days.