Your chickens give you passel of enjoyment . They ’re fun and interesting to watch . They help keep your dope and worm population manipulate . And they provide that signature of rustic good luck charm to your prop .
But amount on . The tangible reason you host those hens can be summed up in a few parole : scrambled , poached , over - loose , sunny - side up and hard - boiled !
For many of us , thosefresh eggsare what it ’s all about . Given the grandness of eggs lay , it ’s only natural that you ’d want to extend you hens ’ laying season as long as possible in edict to gather as many eggs as you could in a year . And you ’re in luck , as there are a few simple thing you may do to maximise farm ’s bollock voltage .
So countenance ’s take a look at them .
All About the Light
If you ’re experienced in crybaby - keeping , you ’re probably already cognizant that your hen loosely lay the most eggs during the height of summer . Those routine dwindle off as moth-eaten conditions approaches .
What ’s happening ? This has less to do with passion , and everything to do with light . Your hens require about 14 hour of daylight before their body kick into egg output mode . By the metre summertime is at its height , your birds are at peak egg production .
It ’s no stroke that your hens bring forth the most egg in the summertime and decrease toward wintertime . Despite your culinary aim for unimpregnated chicken eggs , the independent determination of eggs from a Gallus gallus ’s pointofview is to produce skirt . Baby chicks hatching in a born wintertime environment ( no brooder ) is not a undecomposed idea !
Producing eggs during inhuman weather is also a drainage on a chicken ’s energy resources that they could instead put to use in rest warm . Your hens ’ bodies “ know ” this ( it ’s called photoperiodism ) and thus assay to stave off put eggs in the winter .
No January quiche for you !
Here ’s the good news . you could easily alter the number of hours your hens are exposed to “ day ” with some inexpensive , dewy-eyed and safe artificial lighting . Because you are n’t aiming to raise chicks in the cold ( you just need the eggs ) and you have a nice strong coop where your chickens can go to get out of the weather , by artificial means extending the laying time of year in the natural spring and accrue is a safe method to try .
Unlike heat lamp or other heat sources that some chicken owner might use to hatch a incubator or keep the coop warm during polar weather condition , your end here is simply to increase the amount of light your hen are exposed to . This will spark off the start of egg - laying season in the spring or draw out it in the fall — perchance well into winter .
Read more : deal nut ? regard your cartons .
Choose a Light Source
While you could utilize classic incandescent lighting for the intent of extending your hens ’ place season , there are a couple of reason why you might not want to .
For one , incandescent bulbs put off some heat . In a coop post , this could be unsuitable during the nonwinter months when you ’re strain to further your hens to set . It ’s just an undesirable hotness source that might unnecessarily increase the temperature in the henhouse .
Incandescent lighting also uses more wattage , “ pound for Egyptian pound , ” than an light-emitting diode of the same brightness .
What incandescent lightingdoeshave run for it is the warm colour of the light . This is called the ignitor ’s “ temperature . ” But it has nothing to do with existent heat .
depleted temperature lighting ( with a military rank of , say , 2,700 kelvins ) is “ quick ” with a xanthous cast , while mellow temperature lighting ( in inordinateness of 5,000 K ) is “ coolheaded ” with a whiter or blueish cast .
For the purpose of extend pose season , warm inflammation is best , as it does a better chore stimulating a biddy ’s place tendencies . So aim to avoid incandescent lamp with an to a fault bluish colourcast .
LED ignition will exercise just fine for your nut - laying bird , as long as you select bulbs with warm colouring material temperature . In fact , LEDs may just be your best option . They run coolheaded and are world power - effective enough to run off of a humble solar panel on your henhouse ’s roof , so you do n’t have to worry about running electricity from your home down to the hencoop .
They also are n’t prone to unsuccessful person in cold weather condition the way fluorescent fixture lighting can be .
Your egg - encourage lighting does n’t in reality have to be very lustrous . A 25- to 60 - James Watt ( or tantamount ) bulb should get the business done .
Lastly , you ’ll need a coop - safe light-colored fixedness that is fitly rated and seal for out-of-door utilization in a livestock situation and hung in a safe location that is unprocurable to the hens . Plan to keep this lighter free from junk .
Perfect Timing
The idea is n’t to run unnaturally lighting all dark . You just want to lend some firing to extend the twenty-four hour period . Some people recommend doing this in the cockcrow , others choose to add light in the evening after sunset .
Either way , you do n’t necessarily need to make any late - night runs to chicken coop to flick a switching . Instead , just install your weak fixture on a dim-witted timekeeper that can deal the line of work for you .
More is n’t always better . You only want to extend your hens ’ exposure to Light Within by a few extra hr . And you do n’t want to over - run your artificial light germ .
You in all likelihood desire to avoid subjecting your chickens to an overabundance of 16 to 17 hours of daylight , as this can actuallydecreaseegg production .
And do n’t leave your light on all night . The chickens require a proficient night ’s sleep !
call up about your own “ inner clock ” and how jarring even a small adaptation in time can be — the shift from stock time to daylight saving sentence , for case .
It ’s no different for your chicken , so propose to increase their unreal lighting over a menstruation of about 30 second every week for several weeks so that the change is n’t so sudden to your hens .
study more : Here are some room to get your coop wintertime - ready .
If you ’re render to keep your hen put longer into the fall months , do n’t await until daylight is under 14 hours before you start running additional lighting . By then it will be too former and the chickens ’ reproductive system will be close down .
rather , aim to begin adding your light source once full daylight decreases to about 15 hours per Clarence Day .
Your coop may not be easy transferable , but , for what it ’s worth , a coop located in big tad may pretend your hen ’ pose season , reducing the telephone number of eggs produced .
On the other hand , many chicken owners favor to have their coops site out of doors of direct sunlight to help limit the heat of summertime . You may have to try out in your exact clime and spot to find a balance between light for laying and shade for keeping cool .
A hen in great health that is experience splendid daily nutrition will have better probability of maintaining a long - term egg production schedule . Keep your hens well fed , and they ’ll keep you loaded up with eggs !
Good luck with your good deal .
More Information
With a little bit of effort and someplanning on your end , it ’s a veryattainable finish to unfold your repose time of year at both ends of the summer . But with all of that allege , keep in mind that some downtime during the middle of winter each year is n’t necessarily a regretful matter .
In fact , it can be quite beneficial to your flock .
Allowing hens to take a few wintertime month off of egg laying feed their body prison term to rest and time to put large calorie and nutrients intosurviving winter instead of producing eggs . It ’s also an authoritative prison term to regrow their plume , as many hens use their egg ballad - off to molting and refresh their appearance with a lovely set of brand - fresh plume ( although some breeds that have been developed for laying may have minimized molting season ) .
The bottom dividing line is that extending the laying time of year is just fine . Some biddy - keepers do render to keep their mess laying all twelvemonth long . But you may want to ward off pressuring and push your hens to develop too long into frigid weather condition without a good luck .
This clause in the beginning appeared in the September / October 2022 matter ofChickensmagazine .
