I have 20 or so hens of various ages and breeds and for a month now, have only been getting two eggs a day. I figured it's due to the shorter days so last weekend I put in a light that comes on and gives them two or three more hours of light in a day. When can I expect to see the egg production start rolling again?
Quote:As soon as you've lost your patience and gone out and bought a dozen grocery store eggs. Funny and so true Buff Hooligans!
Funny, yet sad at the same time. Because that's exactly what happened to me. Go ahead and keep the light on anyway. I just put in a sensor that turns on the light at dusk(-ish), and turns it off 2 hours later. .
They will most likely need about 14-16 hours of light to really make an impact. I would recommend only adding artificial light in the morning hours, not at night. At night, they should go to bed naturally otherwise, they may still be roaming around when the light will go off and they will not be roosting yet. The light will not make them lay, it will help them get back on their cycle quicker. It is hard to put a time frame on it as it depends on each individual chicken. I have had a light going on at 3am for a month now and it still has not helped yet but my girls are still molting so I may have to wait a little longer. Another tip, have food and water available for them in the wee hours of the morning when the light goes on. The more they can eat, the more likely they will lay for you. Good luck.
My chickens are up every morning around 4 AM. Between our yard light and our neighbor's, there's a little light all the time outside, but the inside is dark. Mine haven't started laying eggs yet and their chicks hatched in July. So I'm patiently waiting, but am afraid that the chicks will start laying before their moms go back to work. I always thought it was normal for them to be up early, my mom's always are. And I don't have any supplemental light inside yet.
Cracking me up, Buff Hooligans. Yeah, we've already gone and bought those darn store eggs with their sickly pale yolks. Does that mean my hens will lay now?!? I keep meaning to go out and buy one of those timers for the light, but as of yet, I've just been turning it on when I get up at 5, having it turned off at full light outside, and then turned back on again about 5, before it starts to get dark again. I turn it off sometime around 9:30pm and that's their day. I have food and water out all the time for them. I just have one of those old metal feeders and I'm not happy with the system. I know the rats are eating as much as the hens, the dirty buggers, but have yet to find a way to keep them out. They dig more holes under the fences as fast as I can plug them. The other problem with that kind of feeder is that a few of the hens push most of the pellets out onto the floor of the pen with their beaks and then no one eats that stuff. What a huge waste! I saw a neat contraption someone made using white, big pipe-like stuff with one end pointing up so it can be filled up with feed, then curving down and parallel with the floor at the right height for hens to eat. The top portion of the pipe had been cut off and wire attached over the opening so that the hens could get their beaks in to eat but not be able to push any of it out. Clever, whoever thought of that one!! Kudos! If I could only figure out the heck they rigged that up! Thanks for the advice, all!
