Will this mess them up??

[KikiDeAnime]

I realized tonight that I've been giving the hens 3, sometimes 4 hours less of daylight than the last couple weeks. I've been giving them 16 hours of daylight a day ever since we first put their coop light on November 9th. This week I only gave them 12-13 hours of daylight a day.

Will this mess up their egg laying??

 

[416bigbore]

Yes it will mess up their egg laying but not permanently. It's normal for them to lay less when the daylight hours start getting shorter. IMO unless you count on their eggs for food, it's healthier for the hens to have a little break in their egg production. Best of luck.

 

[aart]

Were they laying with that 16 hours of light?
How old are they, in weeks or months?
Decreasing the light duration may indeed affect their laying.
That's why you need a timer

 

[KikiDeAnime]

Were they laying with that 16 hours of light?
How old are they, in weeks or months?
Decreasing the light duration may indeed affect their laying.
That's why you need a timer

Yes, 5 of them were until they decided to molt 2 weeks ago. Now we currently have 3 layers and one has just finished a molt so soon we should start seeing 4 eggs.
All hens range 1-3 years old. 3 of the hens will be 4 next year.
If they weren't all sold out, we'd have one but unfortunately there aren't any in stock anywhere. I was doing fine remembering.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

Yes it will mess up their egg laying but not permanently. It's normal for them to lay less when the daylight hours start getting shorter. IMO unless you count on their eggs for food, it's healthier for the hens to have a little break in their egg production. Best of luck.

My mother demands our hens lay all the time so letting them take a break isn't an option. I was supposed to get new layers this year but all the idiots buying up the chicks because of covid messed things up.

 

[aart]

If they weren't all sold out, we'd have one but unfortunately there aren't any in stock anywhere.

There's a ton of simple household light timers on amazon....I just bought one a couple weeks ago.
Just shopped them again, the few I looked at were not out of stock.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

There's a ton of them on amazon....I just bought one a couple weeks ago.
Just shopped them again, the few I looked at were not out of stock.

I'll let my dad know, thanks!