SPRING eggs?!?

[Rosalinda-84]

Two of my 5 chickens are molting, we are heading toward winter (shorter days) and only my Araucana is the only chicken providing an egg. Is it true that my chickens are not going to start laying eggs until spring when the days get longer? They are on their second year and they have food and water all day long while they free-range. I am in the city so my backyard is small, so I know they are not laying their eggs somewhere else. Spring seems like a long, long time.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

I believe they will go back to laying after they finish molting. Probably around January. Unless your days are so short that they don't get enough light to trigger them into laying. In which case you can supplement with added light in their coop.

But if they laid all winter long last year, I would think they would start back up again after they finish molting.

 

[Rosalinda-84]

They did lay eggs all winter last year. Doesn't adding light only work when they are in their coop all day long? Since my chickens free range, at 7 PM when it is dusk, they head toward their coop for the night. They are let out of their coop at 7 AM. A couple of the Bantams that molted earlier and have recovered their feathers have not laid eggs yet. I'm willing to wait but it kind of sad that I will have to buy eggs.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Add the additional light, when they through moulting, in the pre-dawn hours. Use a timer to have the light come as their wake-up call at 5 am. They won't venture out into the darkness unto the sun comes up or you let them out, whichever comes first.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

I think they will start back up when they finish their molt. Can take 2-4 months to finish a molt.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
First year pullets rarely suffer any serious moulting their first year. The also lay through their first winter. The second year, the hens now moult in fall and laying through the winter isn't as easy for them without additional hours of light.

Always having first year pullets is how those who are in the egg biz solve this. When the older hens go "down" to moult, the young ones are in full lay.