How to Get Your Chickens to Start Laying Eggs Again in the Winter

Many flock keepers see eggs as seasonal produce in the homestead setting.

Winter time eggs are something of a rarity if you lot cull to let your hens follow their natural egg laying cycle.

Yet if you lot are desperate to have your chickens lay eggs during those dark and dreary months then information technology tin can exist done.

There are a few tricks to keeping hens laying and productive during the winter and they are easy to implement and cheap to do. These methods are used past the poultry industry to supply the constant demand for eggs from the general public.

Notwithstanding these methods can be difficult on the hens.

In this article nosotros will talk over why chickens cease laying eggs during the winter and what you can do to keep your chickens laying.

Contents and Quick Navigation

• Why Practice Chickens End Laying Eggs During Winter?
• Natural Ways To Encourage Egg Laying During Winter
• Artificial Ways To Strength Egg Laying During Winter
  • Nutrition and Diet
  • Warmth
• Dangers Of Egg Laying During Winter
  • Vent Prolapse
  • Egg Yolk Peritonitis
  • Ovarian Cancer
  • Secondary Molt
• Summary

Why Do Chickens Stop Laying Eggs During Winter?

Chickens will stop laying eggs over winter because of a lack of energy and a decrease in their hormones.

During the spring and summertime you hens will be laying each almost every solar day.

This depletes resources such as calcium which is a finite resources within the hen'southward body. If she does not take enough calcium then she will start to take (leach) the calcium from her basic which can lead to fractures.

And so by the fourth dimension winter comes effectually, your hen is naturally prepare for a break.

The reduction in daylight will crusade a hormonal change in your hen, signalling to her that it is time to balance.

She will have this time to gradually restore her energy levels to normal and supersede all the lost or depleted vitamins and minerals in her body.

You can help her past providing a slightly college protein feed (20% or better) and making sure she has admission to oyster trounce and fresh water besides. If you can provide her with some fresh veggies and greens fifty-fifty better.

All of this will assist to restore the residue and boost her free energy.

In one case the daylight reaches a certain length (~14 hours) she will naturally start to lay eggs again until the following winter. This is too why chicks naturally hatch during the spring.

Natural Ways To Encourage Egg Laying During Wintertime

But nearly the only natural mode to keep chickens laying eggs throughout the winter is to keep breeds that are known for laying eggs through the common cold winter months.

Three specific breeds come to listen:

• Brahmas
• Wyandottes
• Chanteclers

These breeds are cold hardy and will still lay eggs through the coldest months.

All three breeds have a big corporeality of fluff under their feathers to keep them warm during the wintertime months.

Ii other breeds that become an honorable mention are the Buckeye and the New Hampshire Red.

They were also created in colder climates and will lay eggs through the winter. All of these breeds are fairly docile and should tolerate each other well enough. The New Hampshire Cherry can be a fleck aggressive to others just information technology really depends on the strain y'all go.

The other way to keep some eggs coming in over the winter months is to invest in a couple of new pullets each yr.

As you know, pullets will not molt during their starting time wintertime so they tend to keep laying eggs through their first wintertime. If you have only a modest family then this is a keen way to go along those eggs coming.

The just drawback to this solution comes if yous accept limited space for your hens or are regulated by zoning laws. Be sure to bank check your zoning laws before you call up near doing this.

Artificial Ways To Strength Egg Laying During Winter

Lighting is the single most important thing yous tin employ to continue your hens laying eggs throughout the winter.

When hens take lots of light their body naturally produces the hormones that tell them to lay eggs.

Around fourteen hours of daylight is the golden number.

If they practise not accept enough light then they will not lay eggs – information technology is every bit unproblematic every bit that.

During the wintertime you will need to add calorie-free to your coop if you lot want to force them to keep laying.

The low-cal does not have to be blinding. A light seedling that gives yous enough ambience light to read under will be enough – something like a forty or 60 watt light will do the task.

It is important to have a warm light bulb. Avoid those that tend towards the bluish end of the spectrum as they really do not work besides well with your chickens. Cull one that gives off a redder or more xanthous lite glow.

The light bulb should be contained inside a secure cage and then that no chickens tin can accidentally wing into it and dislodge information technology or burn themselves.

You will also need a reliable timer that can be programmed to turn the light on at a predetermined time. The light should be added at the beginning of the solar day. This lets your flock roost naturally at night and not exist suddenly plunged into darkness. You lot may have to adapt the timer incrementally to go along upwards with the 14 hour light cycle.

Diet and Nutrition

You will hear some folks say that the only thing hens need to lay eggs during winter is lite.

This is truthful to an extent because they will lay eggs with the right amount of light, but they besides need the energy.

In the winter months it is harder for hens to supplement their nutrition from foraging because the ground is frozen and natural resources are limited. Because of this you will need to requite them energy through good nutrition.

Yous should give them a high protein (twenty%) feed. This is a piddling college than regular craven feed (16% protein) just the extra protein will help them deal with the cold weather.

Also you can do things like ferment their feed.

Fermenting the feed unlocks all the subconscious nutrients in grains and this is a tremendously healthful boost.

It is also very cost effective and adequately easy to practice for smaller flocks.

Watch the video below for more than information.

Something else that is vital to chicken wellness is make clean and attainable water. Make certain your hens have access to water over the winter months. Go yourself a good chicken waterer considering if hens do not have water they will not lay.

Warmth

Keeping your hens warm is important if you want them to lay eggs for you lot over wintertime.

Virtually craven breeds exercise very well through the winter months only they do use some energy to stay warm.

Retrieve the coop does non have to exist warm enough for you or I, these ladies have lots of fluff to keep them warm and they will huddle upwards together at night for extra warmth. All you need to do is make certain your coop stays a few degrees above freezing at least.

If you like the traditional methods and have a stiff back, then the deep litter system volition keep your flock warm plenty.

However you tin also apply a chicken coop heater.

Besides remember to go on drafts out of the coop. Yous can put upward some sort of wind barrier if necessary (plastic sheeting or straw bales).

Dangers Of Egg Laying During Wintertime

While it is prissy to have a supply of eggs all twelvemonth circular it is non without some definite negative effects on your chickens.

There is a reason that chickens naturally demand to rest during winter.

Some people accept the view that the hens are in that location to work and it is amend to go the most you can from them in a shorter catamenia of fourth dimension than take them sitting around into old age when they are least productive.

This is a personal or business organisation decision that only yous can brand.

What we do know is that hens suffer from a lot of stress especially in a continuous laying bike.

They besides suffer from a few physical problems when they are forced to lay over winter and we will talk a petty about each of them.

Vent Prolapse

A vent prolapse happens when the vent muscles become weakened from overuse.

When the hen pushes out the egg the vent everts a petty. With a prolapse the vent pops out but does non return to its proper position.

While the prolapse can be pushed back in, it volition likely pop out each time she lays an egg. The biggest danger to her are her sisters who may well peck at the prolapse and cause severe harm.

The risk of recurrence of prolapse is high (especially in older hens). You will need to keep her somewhere dark to prevent her from laying for several days and monitor her closely.

Egg Yolk Peritonitis

Egg yolk peritonitis is a sneaky and silent killer.

Information technology can exist very difficult to spot earlier your hen actually dies.

This happens when the egg exits the ovary only misses the lip of the infundibulum and enters the hens' abdomen instead.

Equally we know, the yolk is packed with nutrition and if information technology becomes contaminated with Escherichia coli so it volition gear up an infection mayhap leading to peritonitis.

This is a medical emergency and will need to exist attended by a veterinarian.

Read our Definitive Guide To Egg Laying Problems for more help.

Ovarian Cancer

Unfortunately ovarian cancer is becoming more than common with hens.

In commercial flocks hens are unremarkably culled past the historic period of 2.5 years. Interestingly this is when their egg laying starts to turn down but it is also around this time that ovarian cancer starts to rear its ugly head.

Approximately 5-35% of hens over the historic period of 2.5 years volition get ovarian cancer.

The more than eggs they lay, the college the chance of cancer.

Secondary Molt

If you are keeping hens with an artificial light, and the light fails, then you run a loftier adventure of sending your hens into a secondary molt.

During the wintertime months this tin exist quite disastrous.

To prevent this you should check your lights and timer oft.

Should the unthinkable happen and so you will have the unenviable task of keeping your flock alive through the winter months. Y'all will need high poly peptide feed, heat to maintain their temperature and of form, you lot can forget about eggs for a few months.

Summary

Whether or non yous decide to have your hens rest through the winter months or put them to work is a personal determination.

It is difficult to keep your chickens laying naturally during wintertime because their bodies are responding to the natural cyclic rhythm of life.

This article has given you tips and tricks to go along them happy and laying.

If y'all have any concerns about the health of your girls then it is probably best to allow them rest through the winter months and regain their strength and vitality for the spring.

With care and attention your hens tin live anywhere betwixt 2-10 years.

Whether or non you lot want them to piece of work difficult for a living is up to you.

Allow u.s. know in the comments section below…

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Source: https://www.chickensandmore.com/keeping-chickens-laying-during-winter/

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