Winter laying?

[Rob_h]

My nearest neighbour - who lives across the fields from me - said that his hens normally stop laying around November and don't really start again until February. He has about a dozen hens and he said they aren't really laying much now and it dwindles to virtually zero over the next few weeks normally. Is this usual?

[PK]

Hi Rob - yes this is normally. Egg laying is very sensitive to light levels and during the winter it will tail off. You might find younger birds in their first year laying the odd egg during this time. Mine re-started onm the 2nd january this year.

[Willow]

Mine are stll laying one each per day.. they havent started molting either....

[wendy]

The first winter of my ex battery girls, they laid exactly the same. The second it tailed off a bit, but I still got eggs daily, just not so many. Now of course I think they lay weekly instead of daily LOL
Wendy

[Mo]

I think you might be lucky. It depends on the age and maybe breed of the hens.

I bought my first 3 hens in March '03 and the first winter they still laid 6 each /week. One of them died suddenly the next summer but the Peggy carried on laying well through the next winter and reasonably well up to November 05. After that hardly any eggs. She was a Black Rock and gave me 785 eggs in that time! The other was a White Star (a very lightweight hybrid, maybe bred for a year of frantic battery egg production), started laying soft shells in Autumn 04 and was very sporadic after that (474 eggs in 18mnths, 84 after that).
The next lot also laid fairly consistently for 2 years, They were bought in September 04, they did moult in winter 06 but only had a few weeks off, then a couple off eggs each / week for a while, and 2 are going strong now, laying 4 or 5 a week.

Then last September I went back for some more, the breeder had retired and relatives had taken over. This lot moulted and didn't lay well over their first winter. I had a few eggs from them though. But they've not laid as many eggs as the Black Rocks, even in summer.

[Richard]

As read already above and I'm sure that others will add to it....

You just don't know.

I've had a winter with absolute zero, for 3 month's it lasted.

On average, I'd say that over the years, egg laying has halved during winter, but much depends on housing, inside pens / arks, free range etc.