Winter egg laying

[DiYMama540]

Yeah I'm pretty sure I would get a lot of... thanks, but no thanks!

 

[Acre4Me]

Pullets generally lay through winter. Production hybrids also generally lay a lot. So, if you remove those two groups then you get older birds that will usually molt in the fall/early winter, then wait for increasing light to lay again.


Last winter, we had all pullets - they turned 1 yo in February. Some of them actually molted and stopped laying in jan/Feb. we also had extremely overcast skies for extended periods, which I think impacted the girls And caused some to stop laying. We have supplemental light in the coop, but only in the mornings. This year we have pullets and birds of various ages (age range is 5 months to 21 months old). We use the supplemental light in the mornings, and we are getting plenty of eggs so far, but these are most likely from the pullets bc many of the oldest ones are molting or just coming out of molt.

All of our breeds are heritage types, so they are not production layers. The most reliable layers -hands down- are the Rocks. We have one white Rock and 5 Barred Rocks. Our least reliable layer is the Black Jersey Giant...she hasn’t laid an egg since last Jan/Feb. but, she wasn’t a very frequent layer before that. She is currently molting in a big way (looks terrible), but is otherwise looking perky in a chicken sort of way. Hoping once her feathers come in, she starts to lay again. We have one BJG pullet, so wondering if she’ll be more reliable than her “sister” (they came from the same breeder). Despite the light in the coop, I’m not really expecting the young BJG to begin laying until late winter (Jan/Feb) bc they are slower to mature.

 

[aart]

Eggs are a seasonal food.
Unless you have pullets hatched early enough to start laying before fall, you aren't going to get eggs in winter unless you use supplemental lighting(and the management and results of that can be far and wide in effectiveness).

 

[FortCluck]

Eggs are a seasonal food.
Unless you have pullets hatched early enough to start laying before fall, you aren't going to get eggs in winter unless you use supplemental lighting(and the management and results of that can be far and wide in effectiveness).

So of we add pullets every spring, we will be golden. I have the ability to continually add since I can hatch eggs.

 

[aart]

So of we add pullets every spring, we will be golden. I have the ability to continually add since I can hatch eggs.

Maybe. No guarantees.
You need to hatch them as early as possible(Feb-Mar-Apr)...which can be a challenge because laying and fertility might not be timed well for that. BTDT.
...and you'll also have to plan with that to do with the ~50% males that will hatch out.
....and remember, Chicken Math includes subtraction. I have to slaughter older hens to make sure the flock is not crowded in winter with my limited housing and harsh weather.

 

[FortCluck]

Maybe. No guarantees.
You need to hatch them as early as possible(Feb-Mar-Apr)...which can be a challenge because laying and fertility might not be timed well for that. BTDT.
...and you'll also have to plan with that to do with the ~50% males that will hatch out.
....and remember, Chicken Math includes subtraction. I have to slaughter older hens to make sure the flock is not crowded in winter with my limited housing and harsh weather.

We are using our chicks as meat chicks unless I want to add a few pullets to the group like the 4 I just added.

We are selling some too and if we don't have enough for butchering day then I'll just hatch some more. Hopefully I can get my hands on some fertile eggs that are local. That'll allow me to add new breeds I don't already have.

 

[junkman56]

Out of my 10 layers I have now, I am getting 1 to 3 eggs a day, my 3 red sex links are 3 yrs old now,
.and stopped laying completely, the other seven have are molting or have molted and slowed down dramatically, I also have 15 chicks that turned 12 weeks old today.
so it looks like we will have to buy eggs for holiday baking this year.

 

[FortCluck]

Out of my 10 layers I have now, I am getting 1 to 3 eggs a day, my 3 red sex links are 3 yrs old now,
.and stopped laying completely, the other seven have are molting or have molted and slowed down dramatically, I also have 15 chicks that turned 12 weeks old today.
so it looks like we will have to buy eggs for holiday baking this year.

I'm shocked that your red sex links are still alive! I heard that they live until they are three and that's about their max. My red sex links have laid almost every single day this year. One of them has stopped for the winter, which I don't mind.

I'm going to change around my nesting boxes for the spring because I don't like the setup that we have. We used four different types of nesting boxes to see which one they used the most and so far it's a milk crate and a nesting box that you buy at tractor supply. It's like a big jumbo plastic one that you screw onto the wall. I think I will be buying some more of the ones from tractor supply because they seem to keep the eggs clean and nobody tries to sleep in them.

 

[junkman56]

My red sex links are 3 yrs old. I started off with 7 of them, and now down to 3, one of them died in it's own. And 3 I had to cull.
The other layers are mixed flock,

 

[tripletfeb]

I supplement my lighting in the winter but I am still down to 2 eggs a week! Out of five hens, 2 eggs a week! It's actually very frustrating because I got chickens for the eggs, these ladies need to pay the rent! I guess as long as they aren't sick or egg bound, I should be happy but I am also wondering if I have two legged pedators stealing them. I bought a camera to set up for the coop so I guess we will see!