winter egglaying

[Terry71]

Hello there. I have one rooster and four hens. They are all three years old. Each fall when it starts to get colder, they stop laying. Then in the spring they start again. I thought this was normal behavior. The other day I went to a farm to get hay for my other animals and low and behold his chickens are still laying. Well, half of them are. Can someone explain this? Is there something I should be doing to get eggs still in winter?

Thanks in advance,

Terry

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
It is normal for egg production to decline with decreased daylight as the process is light/hormone driven. You could supplement their lighting so that you're giving them 12-14 hours per day. I light my coop at dusk (4:30ish these days) and it goes off at about 9:30pm. It helps. The molting however, is another cause of dropping egg production entirely. I have no idea what can be done about that though.

 

[newham0614]

Depends on the breed. I got all winter hardy birds and they still lay. It's been in the 20's at night. I have no additional light.
Good luck

 

[shopchicks]

We had a really cold snap in November and all of mine stopped laying completely. Now that it's not so cold (20's to 40's), I'm getting an egg or two per day from 5 hens. I wonder, being in Canada, if your temps and photoperiod have a stronger effect than here. I think if you put artificial light on them, they may keep laying, but from what I've read, they'll have a longer laying lifespan if they get to take a break in winter.

 

[chickerdoodle]

My Barred Rock pullet started laying in mid September and has laid 6 eggs a week since--no slowing down at all. One of my other pullets--a Speckled Sussex-- just started laying and laid 2 eggs last week and 5 this week. Both breeds are known to lay in winter--no supplemental light either. Gotta love theses girls!

Now if the other 3 feathered freeloaders would just ante up...

 

[kendra1178]

I have 10 chickens. 8 have been laying regularly and I think the youngest 2 are holding out until spring time at this point. One of my 8 'regulars' just started molting, so she isn't laying right now either. Out of the other 7, I have been getting 4-6 eggs per day.

When the days suddenly started seeming shorter towards the end of October, egg production went down dramatically. At that time, we put a light in their coop to go on for about 4 hours early in the morning. This extended their day without messing up their normal bed time at dusk. By the second day of doing this, egg production was back to normal. A few weeks ago, we swapped out the regular light bulb on that timer for a small strand of LED Christmas lights (cheaper to run and no risk of fire) and it has worked just as well if not better than the light bulb we were using before.

We are in Michigan where the temps have been around 20 degrees for the last week. The chickens have refused to leave the coop for over a week now due to the snow and cold weather...LOL.

 

[Mrs. K]

I am wondering if it is the fact that your hens are 3 years old, laying drops drastically then, and combined with the lack of hours of daylight, might be your problem. mk

 

[Mrs. Feathers]

I wondered the same as Mrs. K...re: age and winter although it sounds like this is an annual occurance. Some breeds do just slow down or stop in the winter.
I am also up in the great north of Canada

on the West Coast where we rarely get snow but it is dark by 4:30PM.
Our girls have not slowed up on laying at all...we raise BA`s which are known to be winter hardy.

 

[speedy2020]

Quote:
Why don't you ask the farmer for hatching egg or chick? The farmer may have better stock.

 

[33yardbirds]

I have cut myself back to 9 hens and still getting 4-6 eggs a day, which for right now is plenty for family and friends. These are Barred Rock production birds with no extended lighting to induce production. The temp during night has dropped down to 8-15 degrees during the night and low to mid 30s during the day. I just make sure they have water and plenty of feed, no special attention or care.