Will my chickens molt.??

[Yukonchick]

\my chickens are only 3 months old and the daylight hours are starting to shorten. Are they too young to molt their feathers and will they lay for me this winter. Does anyone know?? I've got 11 Red sussex crosses.

 

[Fred's Hens]

They often do a mini moult, just before entering point of lay. The big one? That normally comes at around 18 months.

They may or may not lay for you this winter. That depend almost entirely upon whether you're inclined to give them a few hours of light therapy, on a timer. Still, first year pullets are always your best winter layers.

 

[Yukonchick]

I just got in from hooking up a treble light in my chicken house. So if I set everything to shut down and automatic door to close at 9pm. then door open again and light on at 7am that would give them 14 hours of light for the day. Will that work? They are 3 month old layers. Those two hanging lamps are solar lights. They havent' been working lately very well.
I haven't plugged in the heat lamp. Don't think I'll need that. Uses a fair amount of power too. We'll see how cold it gets up here this winter.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I just got in from hooking up a treble light in my chicken house. So if I set everything to shut down and automatic door to close at 9pm. then door open again and light on at 7am that would give them 14 hours of light for the day. Will that work? They are 3 month old layers. Those two hanging lamps are solar lights. They havent' been working lately very well.
I haven't plugged in the heat lamp. Don't think I'll need that. Uses a fair amount of power too. We'll see how cold it gets up here this winter.

14 hours of light is way more than enough. I light from 5:30 am until sunrise, which in the dead of winter, isn't until after 8 am, when it clicks off. Sunset is as early 4:50 pm or so, but only for a week or two. I don't do any additional lighting. Mostly, the lighting helps me see to do chores at 6:30 am, and yes, the layers benefit a bit. You are farther north.

I squirm when I see heat lamp bulbs though. Gotta be really honest. The fire danger is simply too great for me to sleep well. Our barn was a huge financial investment and frankly, a few dozen birds can only be worth a hundred buck or two. That's it. A safe device might be one of those ceramic things I've been hearing about. I don't provide any additional heat, even at -30F which is what -32C? If it dips in your area to -35C, I might cave and run a little ceramic heater and mount it so it heats them on the roosts, but SAFELY, in any case.

 

[Yukonchick]

Ya, I agree about the heat light. Its still in there from when the chickens were little chicks. We do get some cold weather up here.Minus 35 celsius and then some. I'm using the deep litter method on the floor and the plywood running around the lower part of the walls are filled with sawdust as well as behind the laying boxes. Community nesting box. Hopefully they'll keep each other warm when they're laying.

I also hung some curtain type material in front of the laying box to help keep their own body heat in there. No pic of that yet though.