Winter Laying Breeds

[Brahma Chicken5000]

It also depends on what you mean by "winter". Consistent highs below zero Fahrenheit will shut down every bird but the Leghorns here, and even they will slow to an egg every other day. Maybe first year sexlinks would keep up too. Maybe.

Where I am in New Jersey it hardly dips below 10°F for a few hours. The low is generally 15-20°F.

 

[BantyChooks]

Where I am in New Jersey hardly dips below 10°F for a few hours. The low is generally 15-20°F.

Chanteclers wouldn't even blink at that, then. You like the rarer breeds, right? Rather than just hatchery White Leghorns?

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

My best winter layer this past winter was a Frizzle Bantam hen. She laid an egg almost daily up until a few weeks before spring when she took a break.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Chanteclers wouldn't even blink at that, then. You like the rarer breeds, right? Rather than just hatchery White Leghorns?

I like a lot of breeds, probably too many for my own good.
I love Leghorns for being such reliable layers, but I do enjoy a mixed flock.

 

[BantyChooks]

I like a lot of breeds, probably too many for my own good.

Ditto.
My compromise has been White Leghorns for eggs, CX for meat, and bantams (Chanteclers and mutts) for my personal breeding projects. If at one point in the future breaking even on feed bills isn't important, I will most definitely switch to LF Chanteclers. I know I am biased, but they really are stellar birds.

 

[Acre4Me]

Yes Leghorns are hands down the best egg laying chicken breed. Have you guys had experience with Leghorn varieties besides the Whites? Do Brown & Exchequer Leghorns lay just as well?

We had dark brown leghorns, listed as show quality, from a hatchery. We bought 6 breeds at the same time. The DBL took 39, 44, and ? weeks to lay a first egg!! The ? Refers to the fact that the third pullet hadn’t yet laid an egg when we sold them at 45 weeks. As to the SQ- yes, they were beautiful and good representatives of the breed.

Currently my neighbor has a batch of brown leghorns, hatchery quality, from a farm store. They appear to be getting to POL. No eggs yet, at around 16-17 weeks old, but full red combs, and some are investigating the nest boxes. The last 2 years he had white Leghorns, that laid daily through 2years, then like a switch was flipped, production slowed quite a bit. He got rid of those white ones last month. He like the color variation of his brown leghorns, and is expecting similar to his whites. We gave him a 10 week old GLW male to add to his flock and he thinks the color of the GLW looks good amongst his brown ladies!

Last winter, the Barred Plymouth Rocks were good layers, first winter, but they seemed the most consistent in the winter of all the breeds we had.

 

[PirateGirl]

Where I am in New Jersey it hardly dips below 10°F for a few hours. The low is generally 15-20°F.

Yes, but it is length of daylight that impacts winter production much more than temperatures. Supplemental lighting will certainly help prolong any breed’s laying season

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I appreciate everyone’s contributions.

Yes, but it is length of daylight that impacts winter production much more than temperatures. Supplemental lighting will certainly help prolong any breed’s laying season

Supplemental lighting has been linked to laying issues and the birds become spent faster.

 

[PirateGirl]

I appreciate everyone’s contributions.

Supplemental lighting has been linked to laying issues and the birds become spent faster.

You were asking about laying through winter... Unless you live near the equator where daylight length is the same year round, this is the only way I really know to accomplish this. How many seasons the birds lay for is a different issue which wasn't listed as a concern. Another way to accomplish having a flock that lays through winter is to keep up a good flock rotation, as others have mentioned most birds will at least lay through their first winter (especially production breeds, but then they are prone to reproductive issues down the line, so again, not sure the longevity of their laying life), by adding a few new pullets each spring and culling those that have dropped off in production, you can keep an overall productive flock and have meat in the freezer for the family. Probably not much need for supplemental lighting, or not a long enough lifespan to suffer the potential ill effects of it. Good luck! I'm certainly interested in what others have to say as I'd love to have as many eggs in winter as summer myself.