Winter Eggs

[zark]

I thought chickens need fourteen hours of light to lay. I got the first egg from my Barred Plymouth Rocks today. The hen house is not heated and does not have a light set up for extra hours. Here in central Pennsylvania we are like most everyone near the shortest day light hours of the year. Was this a freak mishap? Or can I expected the eggs to start flowing on a daily basis? I have to work during week days so I guess frozen eggs could be a problem?

 

[warren]

Here in the UK we are getting about 8 hours of daylight. My two hens are laying about 9 eggs a week between them. The temperatures are about -1 at night and 2-5 in the day at the moment. It is sunny some days and overcast on others. I suppose you could say that they are having about 14 hours daylight per egg, though the light comes over two days!

 

[McGoo]

I don't know about others, but most of my pullets are laying. I've got a mix of breeds and it's only my BOs that aren't laying.
Out of 7, I'm getting about 3.5 a day... and that's with the 2 not laying, which means that the others are laying mostly every day, even with no light or heat. Even today I've gotten 3 eggs and the snows about 6 inches deep.

Perhaps it has something to do with the mild temps.

ps can't really complain

 

[mom23chicklets]

Hi Zar,

First, welcome! I think depending on the type of chickens you have, you may be in store for many more eggs! Out of my flock of 27, (2 are roosters, 3 are too young to lay), I just got a whopping 18 eggs yesterday!!!!

I am not supplementing light, and I'm in Connecticut so it's pretty cold. My chickens hatched around May 21 and started laying middle to end of November. The number has steadily gone up. I was thinking I'd have to wait till next spring for eggs.

Hope this helps, and best of luck to you. Isn't it so exciting to find an egg??!!


Ruth

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Mine are still laying, just not as frequently. The wet and cold weather has interrupted them. I have barred rocks, rhode island reds, black spanish, black sex-link, gold sex-link, dark cornish, and ancona as my current standard layers. They're hatchery stock.

 

[bigzio]

Yep, depends on your breeds somewhat, however most pullets will lay through the first year but not all. Next winter without additional light the eggs will slow down and mostly stop. They will molt next fall when the days shorten and won't lay again til spring without the 14 hours of light. Added light as soon as the days are shorter than 14 hours will deter them from molting.

bigzio

 

[ajcress]

Hello. My name is Tina. I live in a rural area in West Virginia. I recently bought some pullets. 3 white leghorn and 3 brown sex-links. they were supposed to start laying the week I recieved them (mid october). The 3rd week in Nov. I bought 1 Rhode island Red, 3 Blk Langshans, 1 blk australop and I just started getting 1 egg a day about 2 weeks ago. My friend looked at them and said that the RIR, Brown sex-links & langshans were laying. Why do I only get 1 egg???? I am new at this so any helpful advice would be greatly appriciated

 

[CovenantCreek]

Quote:
You may need to keep the girls confined with their nest boxes until they get the idea that's where they're supposed to lay. Seeding the nests with fake eggs will also help them learn where to go. If they are laying already, the eggs are somewhere that the pullets felt was safe -- usually under something and somewhat secluded.

I didn't think my pullets had been laying until one morning I couldn't find one of them, after awhile she started squawking up a storm and I was able to see where she had been hiding. I found 12 eggs hidden in a nest of tall grasses beside the barn. Obviously, that wasn't the first egg she'd laid, and she probably had some help to get that many.

 

[mosier]

I am new to chickens...this is my first winter with mine. But I can tell you that it's been below freezing for over two weeks now, we have a foot and a half of snow on the ground, my coop is not insulated and is only thin plywood, and it's gotten down to -3. We have no supplemental light, and since I'm in Wisconsin the days are very short. I have three chickens. My Rhode Island Red started laying in october and has given an egg a day ever since...I think she's only missed about 5 days in the past 3 months. My Buff Brahma and Silver Laced Wyandotte are also 29 weeks old but still no eggs from them yet. Maybe it just depends on the breed and the individual birds' temperament?

If they do start laying the eggs might freeze....I've found that they start to freeze around 10 degrees or lower.