Chooks on holiday...

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Ours must have signed a workplace collective agreement as for some considerable time they haven't been laying... but haven't gone off consuming layer pellets or free ranging about the place.

So once I changed their pellets to a well known brand instead of the layer pellets I was buying from the local grain merchant (as a ''just in case'' measure) now that we are on bag 3 of the well known brand, with no eggs, I decided to place a bought egg in one of the nesting boxes to show them what an egg looked like in case they had forgotten the scheme of things. [)]

That was about 3 weeks ago, and today, being the other side of the longest night, we finally have someone laying again.... [^] hopefully it might rub off on the remaining 20 odd hens.

Lol swaggie, our chooks must be part of the same union! They all lost feathers back in March so I expected a delay but no eggs. A discussion with hubby resulted in a change to better pellets, still no eggs. I was thinking cull time as when I think of it not one of these birds is inder 4 years old and some will be 8 years plus! So if no eggs soon its to the freezer they go and some point of lays in spring if I can get them.

Normally I breed our replacements but both my original rooster and my oprpington boy died within weeks of each other last year and I haven't replaced them.

Good things take time you know! []

Yes, it does take good food (higher protein and a reasonable energy level) to get over the physiological effort of moulting and regaining condition enough to breed.

Long, cold, dark nights don't help, as not only can they not physically eat enough in an 8 hour day, to last through a 16 hour night and make an egg as well as keep warm and grow feathers, the days getting shorter and shorter have an effect on the pituitary gland, which in turn affects the hormones which trigger ovulation.

There usually won't be any great increase in hormone output until they have experienced about 4 weeks of day length increases, so mid July is the normal time for laying to get going again.

There are of course exceptions!!!

Just like most sheep don't cycle until the autumn, thus the rams are put out in Feb, March or what month suits the lambing weather according to areas-but some breeds and individuals will cycle at other times of the year,
just like some chooks refuse to conform and lay through the short days of winter, or start up again like swaggies, go by the date on the calendar!

For anyone wanting to hurry their girls through the moult, try adding some more protein, like a slice of dog roll-or fresh milk with the cream still on-if you milk a cow!

many thanks Sue for the input.

I am like ccrk9 in that our chooks also went through a moult prior to winter, and I recall also went through what I thought was another moult a few weeks (maybe 6 at max) before that...

Our oldest chook would be lucky to be 3, we change our roosters regularly and the two up and comings have started to crow in the last couple of weeks.

We have mixed breeds but I have considered going back to bringing in more shavers for their laying abilities.

their henhouse faces the east so get to see the sun rising, although its behind the neighbours pine trees... is filtered light/sunrise an impact?

The only thing that saved them from the freezer is the taste of home eggs. I have bought a variety of supermarket free range in the past few weeks, and nothing comes up like our own (albeit very expensive).

Sorry to gloat but - our hens haven't really moulted, nor have they stopped laying. We are getting 10 - 12 eggs per day from 12 hens

Swaggie, yes any light, filtered or otherwise is good. It is the difference between the darkness of night and any light level above that, half a lux or more if you are measuring!

Eel cat, well done, your hens are obviously those exceptional ones! Actually new seasons pullets which start to lay after January, which only experience reducing day length as they lay their first season-and get fed very well, will often lay through their first winter very well and not moult, as they have only just moulted into their adult feathers at the longest day, but as they get older in subsequent seasons this does not happen to the same extent.

These hens now live a life of luxury. Their house is warm and dry, their run (until they are let out each day) is dry - we got them as pullets in September last year (the day we met you at the Manawatu Expo) - brown shavers

eelcat;465600 wrote: Sorry to gloat but - our hens haven't really moulted, nor have they stopped laying. We are getting 10 - 12 eggs per day from 12 hens

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: []

Our hens didn't lay much at all this past season apart from the ones that nested away and turned up with little chickens. Our real farmer neighbour said his didn't lay much either. Maybe the dry weather affected them. We are all looking forward to the lengthening days bringing some activity on that front.

No eggs at my house Elsie did a full-on moult a week or so ago so not expecting much from her for a bit. Doris only stopped a couple of weeks ago so I'm hoping she'll start up before too long. Gladys and Hilda have been on strike for several weeks so not sure when they'll start again. Luckily I have a friend who has a small-scale freerange operation so I can buy from her until eggs start appearing again.

eelcat;465600 wrote: Sorry to gloat but - our hens haven't really moulted, nor have they stopped laying. We are getting 10 - 12 eggs per day from 12 hens

+ one

we have had eggs daily for the past 4 years - one hen or another was always laying. After a 'lean' period of mostly the silkies and the RIR laying since March, others are now picking up (pun intended []), and we're having about 10 eggs a day. As we are the proud owners of aaahhhh - hmmm, ahem[]... - about 40 hens of all ages and breeds, I have to admit some improvement is possible...

First year I have noticed mine moulting - hard to miss, as Fluffy Bum's grey feathers were everywhere, looked like a cat had attacked her (the ground looked like that, that is, not Fluffy Bum, couldn't even tell she was losing feathers, she is so....fluffy [}])

And now...no eggs for weeks...sigh...

We had another one yesterday (so that is 2 in two days) probably due to the fact I bought a tray of them on the weekend..

Perhaps things are on the up?

definitely on the up:
14 hens eggs yesterday, plus the first of my coloured Indian Runners is now laying, too - that currently equates to 4 duck eggs in addition to the hens eggs.
Coconut macaroons, here we come!![^]

I've started feeding our hens goat simmered overnight on the woodburner (Metro Mega Rad) top, goes splat and falls off the bone when it hits the ground feeding the chooks. I'm doing that about twice a week or so. proteins not a problem over winter/moult here. Fat on the goat chunks too, so they have carbs to burn to keep warm and energy levels up too.