Topic of the Week - Winter Egg Laying

[Snobulle]

My pullets born this summer haven't started laying yet, but I have one older hen who has just started laying again this week after mothering through the autumn, which surprised me because I didn't expect her to start laying again until early spring. She is an aseel breed, which are known to be poor layers, and I don't add light in the coop. It gets light here at around 9am and dark by 4pm and I think she has actually been laying the eggs in the early evening in the dark. On the other hand it has been quite mild weather this past couple of weeks after more severe cold in November, so maybe that has helped? It rarely goes below freezing here anyway so I'm not really worried about frozen eggs. I've been feeding the girls layer pellets with mealworms as treats for extra protein and they have a few hours a day to roam and eat the grass. They seem happy and healthy enough.

They are poor layers but greet mothers and love sitting one the eggs and also almost all our hens are laying eggs Here in uae abudhabi which is very cold jn the morning and night but a littleheat in the noon we have 9 Chicks hatched from two broody hens one died due to cold so we kept them in the brooder we sometimes keep them outside in the noon and we keep the two mothers together with them full night we have only bulbs we dont have lamps so we only keep It for the brooder and a batch outside shorlegged barred naked neck and others silkie not pure (goscammed )

 

[Snobulle]

All of my older hens have stopped laying completely. We do get one egg each day, light brown, so probably one of the Rocks or Wyandottes. That is the 19 older hens. We also have 15 young pullets that have not started laying yet. They are red sex links and EE's so I do expect them to start in another week or so if the weather improves a bit. We do not supplement light but we do adjust feed to higher protein and things like corn and oats added for warmth.

I wish I had ee amd wyandots

 

[Snobulle]

My Girls were born in June and started surprisingly me with butt fruits in December. Out of 6 Pullets I am collecting almost daily about 6-8 Eggs a day to a day and a half. I need to put in my chicken cams this weekend so I can see who is laying what and maybe provide some uniforms to tell apart who is doing what . Mind you with the mo th January being a majority of sub zero temps (especially with all the wind) it's a race against time to grab eggs before they freeze.
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My 6 Mother old pullet laid an egg it was the smallest egg i ve ever seen from a Chicken it was smaller than A duck egg

 

[peckham]

One of my 5 Golden Wyandottes started laying 4 days ago! She gave me 1 egg every day for 3 days, took a break yesterday. Hoping she'll lay again today. I am very excited and SO proud of her!

 

[Rillowen]

I have Dorkings, which lay through the winter anyway, and some white Rocks. This was pur first year with laying hens.
I do not supplement light, and found that this year at least even the white rocks laid almost all winter, they might skip a day or two every once in a while, and the week of the solstice they quit, but other than that they have been troopers!

Don't supplement heat either, zone 6 so we normally get mildly cold weather, 20s at night 40s day are normal winter here. (Not that this winter was a good example ) We do the deep litter method though, and since it's basically compost it generates quite a bit of heat itself. The coop stays at about 10-20° warmer than outside.

Their favorite nesting box is one of those smaller "dogloo" a plastic dog house igloo. Between the warmer inside coop temp and the insulation of the dogloo even eggs that were accidentally missed overnight didnt freeze, only those laid in one of the normal nesting boxes did, so we lost only about 3. We really only gather at evening at lock up, but on the coldest days (-15°!!) I checked 2x a day, because I had to go give them fresh water anyway.

 

[featherhead007]

I wish I had ee amd wyandots

Wyandotteys ? I’m a Wyandottey!

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

Supplement light? Yes

Rotate out 2 and 3 year birds for pullets each year? Yes

Winter eggs and freezing? Yes some do but not often. I only toss the eggs that froze solid and broke open from expansion. All others go to egg skelter on counter.

Happy birds in winter? Biggest thing is not to heat coops so they go outside. We provide wind shelter and a small 10x10 roofed area for them to hang out in for cold days and rest of winter they walk the shoveled path through the snow to their favorite shrub that has hay put under it. The outside shelter also has a wood ash in basin dust bath.

I realize this is an old post, but would you mind showing a pic of your winter set up? Assuming it’s still as described in general. TIA

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

It was interesting to read my first post from 2022 when I was less than a full year new to chickens. Oh how my plans to replenish hens and supplement with light changed.
Now, I have two production hybrids with only one laying 2-3x/wk. The remaining 11 hens are in their natural off cycle. I do not supplement light. From Jan 1-Feb 28 the daylight hours increases from 8.5 hrs to 11 hrs- presently about 9.75 hrsand I can already see combs becoming red in a few hens.

I get an occasional frozen cracked egg when temps are below zero- not much I can do about it. 5 nests are wooden and lined with thick shavings and straw, but the one laying prefers a corner on the floor- she sleeps in one of the nests . I add heat only when temps will get -10 as I have several that molted late.

I started a breeding project with BBS Marans, so I plan to add pullets this year. I may add light now just to get the Marans in cycle- I see evidence of my rooster trying to mate them niw.
My OG girls are showing their age- I will allow them to live out their lives and maybe raise chicks if they’re willing. The hybrid layers will be 2 years come December- they are aggressive so will not see another winter- not sure about replacing them yet.

Feed- 20% feed in winter . Sprouted barley once a week and very rare scratch grains, if any.
They have multilayered roosts in the deep litter run. They sometimes go outside but prefer to stare out from the open coop door.