Winter is almost over have your hens started laying again?

[ninabl]

I didn't put lights in my coop this winter and my hens quit for the season. Have yours started laying again yet?

 

[OldGuy43]

Of course I live in a different climate, but ours actually have been laying better with the cooler weather and shorter days.

 

[ninabl]

That's good. I let my hens have the winter break. This coming fall I will hopefully be moved and have lights setup for them so they can keep going. They live in a tractor right now but I plan to build them a nice big coop by mid summer. I was just curious when they should start laying again without the artificial sun lite. Thanks

 

[OldGuy43]

Couldn't tell you. I don't artificially alter the length of day. From my experience, I'm not convinced that it works all that well. The idea comes from "egg factories" using it to optimize production. As I said, my hens are doing great without it. We've been getting 9 eggs/day from 12.

I'm pretty sure someone will disagree with me, but that's been my experience.

 

[hispoptart]

We also gave ours the option of a break and they did not stop until they went into a molt, Took them about a month to start back up.

 

[Pinky]

My hens took a break from November to December, and then around the second week of January they started laying again. My 3 buff orps and 1 rir never stopped laying.

 

[ella]

I'm near the cities in Minnesota and yes! I collected a dozen from the flock the other day. From the 30 of them, their ages range from 3 to 8 years old. It's just annoying to have to wash eggs again.