I love fresh eggs and after you've had them, there is no going back. The firmness and deep yellow-orange color let's you instinctively know they're good for you. The taste is incredible and doesn't represent in the slightest the taste of a store bought egg.
But keeping these packets of golden goodness coming can be a challenge in the Winter. Short days, cold temperatures and the lack of free-ranging bugs and other wild delights can have your girls going on strike for months, so how can you encourage them to get back in production?
First of all, you have to understand a little about chicken behavior. Hens need about 14 hours of daylight for maximum egg production. They also need plenty of water and sufficient amount of protein to produce eggs and also keep themselves warm. Lastly, they need good shelter. So let's tackle these 3 items and see how we can manage the environment to keep them happy, healthy and producing food for the homestead.
Let There Be Light - Here's how we provide enough light for our girls during the short days of Winter. We run an extension cord out to the coop with a reflective lamp cover like this: http://amzn.to/2CXSQEf . We replace the bulb with a 65 watt LED, which uses very little electricity. After setting that up, we plug it into a simple timer like this: http://amzn.to/2Dy6C1N These are not outdoor timers, so we just make sure it's inside the coop to protect it from the elements outside.
So now let's talk about when to have the light come on and go off. The last thing you want to have happen is for the light to go off before your gals have settled in for the night on their roosts. For instance, if you have the light go off at 7:00 pm and it get's dark outside at 5:00 pm, your hens could be on the floor of the coop scratching around and suddenly find themselves in the dark. Here's what we do. We have the light turn on at 4:00 am. It gets light about 7:15 am in Northern Utah right now, so they are already off to a great start to their day by then. Often times I'll go out at 10:00 am and they have already laid their eggs for the day. The sun sets at 5:01 pm as of today and so we have the light go off at 4:00 p.m. This allows the girls to put themselves to bed using natural light.
Food and Water - Keeping water and protein rich food in front of the chickens is key for good egg production. We fill their water dish with about 2 inches of water per day for 12 birds. We use a flexible, rubber dish because by the next day what they don't drink will be frozen solid and you'll need to bust the ice out. We have found this one to be the best solution. http://amzn.to/2CYmjOr Also, we have followed Justin Rhodes method of feeding chickens. You can find his chicken videos on YouTube. So currently they are getting about 1 to 2 soup cans per day of laying pellets, 1 large cottage cheese container of whole wheat berries and 1/2 a soup can of cracked corn. This is supplemented with all of our kitchen scraps and the occasional road kill. (I'll do a post on that later)
Shelter - Chickens need a good place to get out of the wind. Our coop is not heated and never has been. Temperatures in our area can get down to -20 f . It 's insulated on the ceiling, but not much anywhere else. Just keep them dry and out of the wind and that's about it.
So we have been getting about a half dozen eggs a day using this method, which is enough for the two of us, making the home made dog food and giving some to friends and family.
There you go folks. Just a note, the links above are affiliate links. We get a small commission if you happen to buy them, but it costs you nothing extra. It's a win for everyone :)
Hope this helps you guys and we'll check in again soon.