Producing eggs in the winter

[kellisnider]

My girls stop laying in the winter and I have to turn buyers away. How do I keep them laying all year long? I feed layer pellets and supplement with grain, fruits and veggies as they are available. Thank you

 

[countrygoddess]

Do you supplement their light? I give my girls 14 hours of light/day by using a timer on a light bulb. I also bump up their protein in the winter by supplementing with dehydrated meal worms, raw beef dog food, yogurt, buttermilk, etc. When I'm at the grocery I pick up an extra couple bunches of greens to give them. I feed them a homemade ration of wheat, oats, field peas, corn, sunflower kernels, sesame seeds, fish meal, kelp meal, alfalfa meal, active dried yeast (made for livestock, not bread yeast), and supplements. The only time my girls stopped laying this winter was when the temps were between -11 & 5 for a week. Then they got right back to it.

 

[kellisnider]

Thanks for the info. No I don't supplement their light but easily can. Should I use a heat lamp or will a regular bulb work? Even though I live in E. Oregon, we don't get as cold as -11, but near zero is not uncommon.

 

[countrygoddess]

I use a CFL bulb.

 

[EggsnQuackers]

We supplemented light too. And we had a red heat lamp on when the temps went below 0 or if there was going to be a particularly low windchill. The heat lamp kept their coop about 10 degrees above the outside temps all winter long. For most of the winter this meant the temp inside the coop coop was 0-10 degrees.
We got at least 5 eggs a day from 9 hens all winter long.