Shorter days, laying less?

[allpeepedout]

Newbie here. Laying of my first-year EE/BR flock has dropped in last couple of weeks from 5-6 eggs/day to 2. Is this common this time of year in the midwest due to the shorter days? I guess I had read and expected that laying would drop in the winter, not in the early fall.

When might laying ramp back up, if day length is the factor? Is it highly individual? Thanks.

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

A hen requires a minimum of 14 hours of light to continue laying at normal levels. This can be combated by using artificial lighting. Just a very low wattage bulb on a timer will do the trick. We use a string of darker colored Christmas lights strung through our breeder pens and plugged into a cheap timer to keep the girls laying through the Fall and Winter months. The lights come on at 4am and shut off just after daybreak. Otherwise it will be Spring before she will lay again normally.