Will hens lay for a longer period of time during their lives if they take a break in the winter?

[NYREDS]

I light my coop during the winter and my chickens are in excellent heath. They are fully feathered, have bright red combs and are nice and fat. If I don't light the coop they won't lay all winter long and I keep chickens for eggs not just as pets. We love them, pet them and enjoy watching them free range in the backyard but the truth is when they stop laying they go to the freezer. Whether or not a person encourages their chickens to lay year round is a personal decision on what a person keeps chickens for and what they want out of the experience. I don't believe lighting a coop leads to a shorter life span or more complications. My oldest two hens lived to be 6 years old before they were butchered. They laid up until freezer camp but were butchered because they had developed a nasty habit of eating eggs. They were completely heatlhy and never had any reproductive issues. All but one of my hens are dual purporse breeds, marans, langshans, EE's and some welsummers. They have great carcass sizes when their egg laying days are over. The white egg layer is a leghorn cross (hatchery specialty) and is just as fat and healthy as the rest. She doesn't need artificial lighting to lay but certainly isn't harmed by it.

I tend to agree. I too light my coops in the winter mostly because I just started setting eggs. I have to start hatching now to have birds ready for spring shows. My birds look good & other than tail damage from breeding & time in the nest they don't appear worse for wear. I think the birds alluded to with the bare bottoms & early demise are the production hybrids that never seem to look good & are not long lived under any circumstance.
I have an 11 year old Old English Game hen that still lays & looks good. I know she's an exception & I don't get this from all my birds but lighting hasn't hurt her much.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

I have a few rescued hens that came from an egg laying farm. They lay huge eggs year round almost every day - and it is VERY hard on them. They have bare bottoms and have to eat a TON of supplemental calcium just to make hard enough shells. To me, it is part of a hen's nature to take some time off in the winter months and forcing them to continue laying so often does not give their bodies the chance to rest and heal. I know that the rescue hens I got will not live into their prime like the rest of my flock. My goal with having backyard chickens was to have humanely raised and natural eggs and that is why I do not provide supplemental lighting. I want my hens to live to a ripe old age because they are my pets. Just my two cents

The problem with this statement is that you don't really know that bare bottoms, etc are caused by laying eggs all year round. You think maybe that's the case, but you have no real evidence other than your supposition.

I, too, have hens that are commercial laying breeds. In fact, they don't have breed names but numbers like Ideal 236, which is a white Leghorn bred specifically for commercial houses. My hens lay between 6-7 large eggs every day of the year except for about 2 weeks in the fall when they moult. They don't have bare bottoms, and certainly don't need more supplemental calcium than other birds--in fact, they need less feed and less calcium. My birds are gorgeous, with soft white feathers and proud tails. I also have some commercial red sex links that have given me as many as 8 eggs a week (I have one awesome bird!). They look terrible, but they are also favorites of the rooster and are moulting hard. When they are finished moulting, they will look gorgeous again and go back to laying 6-8 extra jumbo eggs a week, all winter.

There are a lot of other factors in a commercial layer house that might cause your rescued hens to not do as well as other hens, but you can't know that it's because they received supplemental lighting.

 

[Flockofeleven]

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences - I found it super helpful!

 

[radrick01]

I am going to put the light because no mater how hard we try, our chickens get killed by some animal or another long before they run out of eggs. At least if they lay all winter we get more eggs before they are gone! I hate that they always get killed. But, I guess we help with the local wildlife to survive......