Personally I would put more weight on the diet part and breed than heat or light.
Lets say that you had little experience and were just going to give this whole off-season laying thing a try. You have what you have running amok in your yard, so to speak, and must stack the deck in your favor. All matters of breeding fly out the window, so then what? If you'll note, Mr. Kains said nothing of artificial light, since he didnt really have any in 1910! That part of it was mine, based on what has been learned since he published his comments a century ago.
If you are buying feed like most of us, then diet is practically taken care of for you. About all you need tt add is green feed during the fall and winter. In preceding chapters, Mr Kains goes into great lengths on formulating feed - thus his emphasis on dietary components. I edited much because it didnt apply, but I left the important part: you must understand the shift in dietary NEEDS during the winter.
We hit -16 here during the winter and they still lay. Although production does drop from the summer #'s. Draft free coop and lots of bedding and they do just fine.
A tight coop will be warmer than you might think. I'm always surprised come winter at how "cozy" it is compared to outside. However, if a chicken does not have to expend so much food energy to keep warm, there will be more for egg production. That wasn't covered in this quote because it is well known and covered elsewhere.
Given this, it behooves you to give them a some heat if you can - if maximum egg results are truly your goal.
I'm also curious to know if you add any supplemental heat or have you done so in the past and recorded any increase in production for it?
Also, would you elaborate on the timing issue as it applies to you? Do you just use the same hens over and over, without refereshing the laying flock?
I have 5 year old hens here that are reliable winter layers. The characteristic has been passed on to their progeny. So the lineage of your birds will have an impact also. Pushing hens too hard to lay in the winter just burns them out quicker. That is OK from the commercial perspective but not so desirable from the hobbyists point of view.
> > > > > > This was Mr. Kains main point and really the most critical one. If you get nothing else out of all this, get this burned in.... Ready??:
Having chickens in the laying phase of their year at the right point on the calender is what makes for eggs - regardless of the season.
Now, there is little doubt of it, but layers that lay are important. That, too was stessed in the quote. It seems simple, but I guarantee many who read this do not recognize that. They have chickens, that's it. When laying slows or stops in the fall/winter, they either worry that something is wrong or shrug their shoulders. Little thought is normally given to actually managing for a purpose...
Mr. Kains was writing from a profitability perspective, remember. He would have also culled undesirables from his flock as needed and, if you caught it, would replace birds at planned intervals through the year... all part of being in what was for him a seasonal egg business.
The same rules apply to hobbyists - they are in the 'seasonal egg business', too. However, most hobbyists will refuse to cull any of their "pets" and most add birds based on "cuteness," serendipity or whim. Well and good, I suppose, but the discussion here is to have quality layers that actually lay well in the winter.
Some readers will see these things as the penultimate of the process, that which is to be reached for if you are serious. I hope so - that was my intent in presenting it. But many, if not most, will discount all that as unimportant. I disagree with them fervently.
It does little but drain your finances to feed hens that don't lay well, are out of season, etc. Who buys the feed, you or them? At any given time, there is usually at least one post on BYC lamenting the high cost of feed... so we know that answer!
As long as you are the one feeding them, your aim should be to get the maximum results from them. Feeding unproductive hens only burdens you, not them. This is especially so if you intend to apply the extra effort required to have them lay out of their natural season. For the "fishtank" folks, e.g., those who just like to see lots of chickens running around in a poultryesque "aquarium," none of this is likely to apply. I'd be surprised to learn that they were still with it this far. For the rest, those who are still reading this, it very likely should.
I realize, too, that this thread does not offer a step-by-step plan. We could do that, if we wanted and perhaps that would make for a good extension of this topic. Instead it was my intent to offer the hobbyist some food for thought, from someone who did what were talking about, back when there wasn't any fancy science, pseudo or otherwise. He essentially refined what we hobbyists do today... make do with less and what is on hand, in order to get more.
I hope it did just that and will help add more determined effort to everybody's flock.
