Rigged up a light... now where are my eggs?

[Pent]

I've had my oldest hen since mother's day, her comb is red as a rose and has been for months, but thanks to the Canadian winter and short photo-periods, I have not yet had a single egg. So finally I gave in and rigged up some lighting in the coop, set to come on early in the morning and give them a longer day. Day 2 of this, and no eggs yet. Had anyone else introduced a light mid-winter? Can they report how long it took for the extra light to stimulate the hens to lay?

They are well fed on Fermented feed, and sprouted fodder, dry, with a heaping pile of leaves in the run. I feel I should have eggs now, these girls are pampered like crazy! Do you think adding a fake egg would help?

 

[Judy]

What breed is she? They can start laying as old as a year, probably even later on occasion. If my math isn't too far off, your girl is around 26 weeks, which really isn't a very late number for many of them. Of course, it varies by individual as well as breed. I've had a rare one start before 20 weeks, but others not til 30 or more, and these were plain old hatchery birds. The EE's always took the longest, I believe, but the Buff Orps were slow as well.

You aren't likely to see results two days after introducing a light. For one thing, it takes several days from the start of the process to laying the egg. I can't answer you about introducing light at this date, but I do think it's worth a try.

 

[Pent]

She's a Silver Laced Wyandottte. She looks to be past pol, based on comb color, size, etc, but there's a general shortage of laying here in NS lately. The local chicken FB page is full of people looking at their huge flocks and going "hmmm, one egg? Really?" or "Ok, nothing again today..." This winter the birds just seem less into it.

I appreciate the time frame, a few days isn't long to wait to see if it might be having an effect.

 

[aart]

How many hours a day of light are they getting?
14 hours give or take a couple is the most frequent I've seen recommended.

 

[Pent]

Well, the light comes on at like, 430-5 am, and the sun goes down at 5-6 pm, ish? so 12+ hours?

 

[aart]

Sounds pretty good, but I think it can take a couple weeks for it to bump the hens back into lay....
......and yours haven't even laid yet correct? All you can do is try what you can, the rest you can't control, unfortunately.

Here's a good article on supplemental light to read while you wait for your eggs ;-)

Good Luck!

 

[ECBW]

Well, the light comes on at like, 430-5 am, and the sun goes down at 5-6 pm, ish? so 12+ hours?

That is exactly what I am doing, 12 hours with pre-dawn lighting. It took 5 to 8 days gradually for the magic to happen. The only difference is that my 2014 generation started laying in early fall then stopped due to shorten days.

I had SLW and it started laying about at 5 to 6 months.

 

[Pent]

cool, so roughly a week before I see results? If i'm going to, that is.

 

[Hokum Coco]

My experience with light;
Spending a dollar;
Trying to save 10¢.
It is for large scale egg producers
not for 1 or 2 dozen hens.