Sex links and laying through the winter?

[Ohmyheart]

When they say sex links lay all winter long is that with or without light at night?
Is this only in their first year or for all their years until they just slow down from age?

 

[sylviethecochin]

Without light the first year, light every successive year. Mostly, that "lay all winter" thing only applies to young (less than three years old) birds; the advertisers expect you to get rid of your flock after productivity slows down.

 

[Ohmyheart]

Thank you.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... they say sex links lay all winter long is that with or without light at night...

Sex links are hybrid commercial hens that if I am correct have had the instinct to set bred out of them. Setting is responsible for more lost egg production than any other reason. Throw in the fact that most hens sit during the peak of the egg laying season and you have cut as many as 40 weeks off of the egg laying season and limited your production to maybe 70 eggs per year. This is about the yearly average egg laying capacity of hens 150 years ago.

Someone (aart I think) recently posted that one of their hens went broody 8 times this year and the year is not yet over.

 

[aart]

Some pullets may lay all thru their first winter without lights,
sexlinks would be more apt to do so as they are bred for high production.

Most older birds (over ~18 months) will not lay at all over winter without lights,
they need to molt then build their condition back up before laying again,
and usually won't lay again until the days get longer after solstice...
...how much after solstice depends on bird.

Someone (aart I think) recently posted that one of their hens went broody 8 times this year and the year is not yet over.

Tho this thread is not about brooding or setting... yes, 8 times, I let her hatch the first time. I don't know what she's doing now as I gave her away.

 

[Ohmyheart]

Thank you both, my black sex links are 19 months
One is for sure molting but she is still laying. The other doesn't look like she is molting. Funny enough she did go broody this summer and she was not snapping out of it. I had to after a month lock her up in the broody buster to get her out of it. I never expected my BSL to go broody.

Anyways, I am giving them the time off if they want it. My Eggers seem to be done for the year. I just didn't think ahead when getting chicks this spring to grab a few more Sex links for winter eggs. My olive eggers and bcm hopefully can fill the need for eggs.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

.... Most older birds... will not lay at all over winter without lights... they need to molt then build their condition back up before laying again... and usually won't lay again until the days get longer after solstice...
...how much after solstice depends on bird.... this thread is not about brooding or setting... yes, 8 times, I let her hatch the first time. I don't know what she's doing now as I gave her away.

I agree with you aart. This thread is about hens laying eggs or maybe hens not laying eggs. What is left unsaid is that regardless of the season, sitting hens "don't lay no cackle fruits". I think that it is the University of Wisconsin at Madison that has a collection of old White Leghorn World magazines going back to the beginning of the 20th Century. Few farm wives of that day had electricity. Therefore few farm wives of that day had light assisted layers.

Yet White Leghorn breeders of the day routinely advertised their hens as laying 300 plus eggs per year. Yes, I know that you need to take advertisements with a grain of salt but there is some truth in what these breeders said. With supplementary light I remember my gramps having one cage layer who produced 365 eggs in one calendar year. Part of my job was to gather the eggs and mark the cards stapled to a 4" board on top of each cage.

I have previously posted about my 300 plus game hens not laying a single (almost) egg for 90 days or more per year. These hens routinely began sitting after laying a clutch (12 to 18 eggs on average) and the older the hen the fewer eggs she would produce before taking to her nest.

The truth is that the brand of hen that you keep will have at least as much if not more influence on how many eggs each hen will lay.