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Keep Hens Laying Eggs Through The Winter

hens laying eggs in the winter

When Fall arrives, molting is not far behind. Broody hens have probably already molted.

Those that have finished molting are now sporting bright, tight new feathers, red combs, and wattles, but no eggs.

The number of eggs that chickens lay is hugely affected by the season and the number of daylight hours.

In today’s article, we will look in-depth at why hens don’t lay year-round and what you can do to change that.

Keep Hens Laying Eggs Through The Winter

When Do Hens Stop Laying Eggs For Winter?

Chickens’ egg-laying cycles are heavily impacted by the amount of daylight and time of year.
Daylight Hours and Egg Laying
Once the amount of daylight starts to reduce, it signals the chicken that it’s time to molt, shedding old feathers for new, a time for repair and restoration.

When the days get shorter, unique signals are sent to the brain by the eyes and the endocrine glands. The two glands involved in this message are the pineal gland and the hypothalamus, both situated in the chickens’ brains.

The hypothalamus regulates growth and reproduction, and the pineal gland controls the circadian rhythm (day and night).

These glands can ‘sense’ daylight through the skull and regulate the chickens’ response to decreased light.

The pineal gland regulates the circadian rhythm of all creatures. Because of this tiny gland, even a blind chicken will sense the changing seasons.

We should note here that chickens ‘see’ light differently from humans. They can see beyond the spectrum visible to humans.

With at least twelve hours of light in summer, the pineal gland does not produce as much melatonin. Therefore, the chicken lays her daily egg.

And if motivated, will produce chicks if allowed to – courtesy of the hypothalamus signals.
With reduced lighting, more melatonin is produced during winter and signals the bird that it’s time to rest and replenish.

The natural rhythm tells the bird it’s time to gather energy and resources to survive the cold months ahead.

Now we know what causes the decrease in eggs and the annual molt, what will we do about it?

Keeping it Natural during Winter

If you prefer to keep your birds on a natural cycle of rest during the winter, be prepared to be short of incredible, fresh eggs!

Not all of your birds will stop laying, but the daily output will be significantly less.
If you have sufficient room with your chicken set-up, you could invest in a few new pullets/chicks every year.
Chickens in Snow during Winter
Pullets won’t molt until around fifteen to eighteen months, but they should lay eggs for you!

Be sure to choose a breed that is known as a good layer.

Hopefully, you froze some for this time of year if you had a glut of eggs during the summer months. Although frozen eggs don’t have that incredible, fresh laid taste, they are still acceptable for baking.

There are benefits (for the hen) in allowing them to be natural.
In a wild setting, the birds would stop laying through the winter because there is little food and water.

All the energy available will be used in foraging, finding shelter, and avoiding being eaten or frozen to death! Mother Nature is not a kind Mother.

Our domestic hens also use this time for rest and building up their energy for another busy season of egg-laying and chick-rearing.

I think it’s important to let the birds be as ‘natural’ as possible.
This rest gives the egg-laying department a much-needed break and lets tired muscles have time to recuperate.

Hens that are forced to lay year-round without a break (other than molting) tend to experience problems such as vent prolapse, egg yolk peritonitis, and ovarian cancers if they are allowed to live beyond a few years.

I have never put lights on to encourage my girls to lay. I think they have earned a well-deserved rest!

Getting them through the winter with its’ inclement weather is enough stress for us all.

I have always been fortunate that a couple of the old diehards have provided enough eggs for us through the winter, and I try to get a few chicks in the spring to lay by winter.

Keep Hens Laying During Winter

Hens’ need anywhere from twelve to sixteen hours of daylight to lay an egg and it needs to be constant.

If you start with light and then decide you don’t want to make, they lay – wait until next season.

Messing around with the light can throw them into another molt.
Chicken in Nesting Box
If you were to throw them into a mid-winter molt, it could be hazardous for your birds.

To provide a constant light you will need to have your lights on a timer and adjust every couple of weeks to keep it stable. A few minutes either way is not going to make a huge difference, but try to keep it consistent.

It is best to add light in the early morning hours. That way, in the evening, they will experience natural dusk and be ready to hop up on the roost at bedtime.

If you experience power outages in your area, be sure to have a generator for standby power.

If the lights go out suddenly and remain that way for a few days, it can cause them to molt – something you don’t want to have to happen.

Adding light to your coop also increases the ambient temperature in the coop.

A forty-watt bulb should be sufficient for a small coop around eight by four feet, six-foot-high.

The chickens themselves add about ten watts of heat per bird so that the coop will be very comfortable for them.

Please make sure the light is safely and securely hung out of reach of the birds and litter.
Coop fires can start within a couple of minutes, so be very cautious.

This little video shows how easily a fire can start.

As you are lighting the coop for twelve of more hours, make sure there is enough to keep them busy. If they get bored and restless, the younger hens will probably suffer from picking and pecking.

If you have the available space, try to make small, darkened areas where the timid birds can hide from the bullies.

It doesn’t have to be fancy – a piece of board leaning against the coop, a cardboard box even. It gives the bird a chance to rest quietly.

If the coop is outside with a run attached if at all feasible clear the run so they can venture out during daylight.

Windbreaks can be made from various materials – I like to use tarps. They are strong, versatile, and inexpensive. Placing tarps over the roof and on the ‘weather’ side of the coop will help to keep the run clear.

If you ask them to lay over the winter months, it is also essential that they receive enough protein to do the job. If you have switched over to twenty percent feed during the molt, stay with it.

Eighteen percent feed is acceptable, as is game bird feed (usually twenty to twenty-two percent).

The extra protein converts to energy and the increased ability to lay over the winter. You can return to sixteen percent in the early spring.

One important thing to note here is that health issues are common with older hens that are constantly ‘in lay.’

For instance, vent prolapse and egg laying problems.

Industrial hens are usually disposed of at eighteen to twenty-four months, so the issue doesn’t arise for them.

But for those of us who keep our hens ‘until death does us part’, we will likely see these types of problems more frequently if they are forced to lay over winter.

Aside from the Lighting Issue:

Your chickens need to conserve their energy to stay warm, especially in cold climates. It’s important to understand that, while the shorter days directly affect egg production, so do the temperatures.

In fact, these two factors are intertwined, and one might say that there’s a good reason chickens don’t lay eggs during the winter.

They need to be able to make it through winter, to begin with, and keeping warm takes a ton of energy…energy that can’t be “wasted” on egg-laying.

With that being said, if your chickens are reasonably warm, have the protein they need and have enough daylight, they can safely lay eggs throughout the winter without it negatively affecting their energy, thus health.

There’s a bit of a controversy over the decision to heat a chicken coop…mostly based on fire hazards and the risk that comes with electrical outages.

Chooks who were used to the warm coop would chill and die if their heat source suddenly ceased to exist.

Some swear by heating their coops to ensure their chickens are warm, others believe that chickens regulate their body temps quite well on their own, as long as they have the shelter they need.

What you decide is ultimately up to you. But the point is, cold temps, require more energy to survive which means less energy will be spent on eggs.

Keep Hens Laying Egg Through The Winter Summary

So, in a nutshell, your ladies need light, warmth, food, and a nest-box to get them in the mood for laying eggs through winter!

Remember though, they aren’t machines and although the egg output will increase, it will not match the summer output.

Whatever you decide, they need fresh water too.

Those freezing cold winter temperatures have a tendency to freeze the available water! You will need to check the availability of water every few hours unless you have a heated source of water.

Don’t forget to add vitamins and minerals into the water weekly. If you are a big fan of ACV, again once a week should be sufficient.

To lay or not to lay is a personal decision, there is no right or wrong, simply differing views.

I choose to let them rest and suffer the consequence of a ‘seasonal product’.

I also don’t run a business, so my income doesn’t depend upon the chickens’ working twelve months a year.

Let us know in the comments below: to lay or not to lay!?

READ NEXT:  Best Time of Year to Raise Chicks: Spring or Winter?

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Keep Hens Laying Eggs Through The Winter

 

27 thoughts on “Keep Hens Laying Eggs Through The Winter

  1. Good article as always – thanks for your precious advice.
    My ladies are still laying even in the Siberian climate we’ve been experiencing over the last week here in France.
    If they want to stop laying its their choice – they deserve a rest my girls for all the eggs they’ve provided us since they came here last June.

  2. What vitamins do you suggest to use weekly and is this every week of the year or is it just for winter?
    Thank you
    Lee

    1. Hi Lee,
      I’m generally not too regimented however I do try to make sure they get ACV weekly and electrolytes when needed.
      Claire

  3. I put a red heat lamp in my coop. I want my girls to rest, but we have been below -0 a lot this winter. Is the red light a stimulant to them? They are less than a year old pullets, so they have been steady laying. ?????

    1. Hi Kaitlyn,
      I wouldn’t recommend removing the light mid-season for the reasons explained within the article. I would just continue to monitor it’s usage and make sure to adjust it so the timing stays consistent.
      Claire

  4. People kept telling me it was the cold, now i know better. Personally i want my girls to live long, healthy and happy lives. To risk my friends lives for a few more eggs is not right, for me anyway.

  5. We leave our girls to lay or not lay through the winter. Buffy and Gloria have been very consistent layers and little Gladys has just started again after a couple of months off. Jasmine decided to stop laying completely after a year – that was over a year ago – but she is number one chicken so she’s got other things to occupy herself with. Tilly has a tumour but we have a wonderful vet who has come up with palliative care as she is still thundering round the run with the others. Violet alternates between broody and moulting – don’t ask – but she’s such a sweetie, we don’t mind no eggs. Bella will get back to laying eventually, when she’s not giving you a sharp peck on the back of the leg! We love all our girls; the eggs are a bonus when they come.

    1. I love this! We named a couple of our girls in the beginning, but after a bear, and a fox had chicken on us, I now refer to them as Chicken, Chicken, Chicken, Chicken, Chicken, Chicken and Little Red.

      1. My sister doesn’t name her chickens, but we let the kids name ours. We have one named Luna that only answers to my husband who calls her “Big Brown.” Much to our mutual jealousy. She comes running for him, and pecks me when I come close. My sister’s chickens are named, White one, white one, white one brown one and brown one for now. Little does she know, I let the kids name her chicks in my brooder. I’m giving them to her with name tags!

  6. My hens are free range. They do have a lovely chicken coop “Chick Filet”. How do I get them to lay eggs in the nesting box instead of all over the 98 acres? They are 5 months old so I should be getting my first egg soon.

    1. Hi Joyce,
      You can start by training them with rubber eggs. You can simply place them in the nesting boxes to encourage egg laying there.
      Claire

      1. We let them free range after 2:30. They have figured it out to put eggs in the box. During the winter, we sometimes get one egg or 4 depending on how they feel. I really love them.

  7. How do you get your young chickens to lay in the nests instead of the ground outside? Mine have just started laying and they are laying outside on the ground. One or two a day.
    Thank You,
    Earlene

    1. Hi Earlene,
      You can place dummy eggs in the nesting box and your hen should do the rest 🙂
      Claire

      1. I put hay in a dog house and put eggs in it until they figured out where to lay. After one brooding, I took the hay out and put it in nesting boxes. They’ve been laying in the boxes since.

  8. Your article described my girls perfectly! Only one molted. She laid an egg almost every day during the summer and now we have not had an egg from her for almost a month. Rarely does it get outrageously cold on the So Cal coast so I used heat lamps when little but not now. but it was funny when you said ACV because I said “What’s that?” The person writing said the same thing and you answered apple cider vinegar. Ha Thanks for the information and help. How much AVC to water?

    1. Hi Linda,
      It will vary depending on the brand, but normally a teaspoon per litre of water 🙂
      Claire

  9. Thank you very much for the information. I was worried that my hens were sick or something wrong with the cocks. I am now happy to let them rest.

  10. I’d love to know how people train their chickens to lay first thing in the morning and in the nesting box. I’ve currently just one that lays but she lays in the afternoon and under her coop. She’s been laying since June/July but never in the box. I used to have golf balls in there to encourage it but she just takes them out.

  11. We have 2 gold line chickens who are adorable and follow us everywhere and 2 light Sussex. They are really not friendly and won’t be picked up or stroked and are really flighty too. They haven’t started laying yet either. Could that be the reason for them being so unfriendly.
    Would appreciate some advice. I have your book but it doesn’t cover this topic

  12. Hello, there! Great article. I’m wondering where you got the chart that shows the % egg laying based on hours of light per day? This is something I’ve been trying to find and am struggling to figure out how to plan egg laying rate throughout the year. Thanks!

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