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Re: Eggs???

Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:14 am
by kenya
I don't give supplemental light, I have enough eggs with just the silkies. I hate selling eggs and I don't want any chicks in the winter anymore.
It is strange that Jaye is not getting any eggs even with the extra light.

Re: Eggs???

Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:26 pm
by Jaye
kenya wrote:
Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:14 am
I don't give supplemental light, I have enough eggs with just the silkies. I hate selling eggs and I don't want any chicks in the winter anymore.
It is strange that Jaye is not getting any eggs even with the extra light.
Thankfully, I'm not totally devoid of eggs in the coop: I am still getting eggs from one of my two youngest who came into lay in late fall, but nothing from the other three of laying age (four if you count the second of the youngest) who didn't come into lay before the shorter days of late fall like her sister did.
I think it's strange too.

Re: Eggs???

Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 9:05 pm
by Happy
I dont do supplemental lighting other than from 5-6pm to get feeding/visiting and a quick clean done. I didn't hatch or buy any new pullets this year so I dont expect any eggs until march or so. The one a day that I'm getting is a bonus! I have never had chickens for the egg production so it's fine by me.
Jaye I do agree that your situation seems odd. I had a pullet start to lay last fall and then stop after about 8 eggs. She took the whole winter off and then laid about 20 fart eggs in the spring before her system finally kicked into normal. I've never experienced that with a new layer before but she seems fine now. Molting right on schedule and on another break. Hopefully things straighten out for you soon .

Re: Eggs???

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 5:24 am
by LongCrow
I do supplemental lighting 6500K (daylight) bulbs from 4 am- 5 pm. Most of my older hens are moulting and I have about 40 % 1st year layers but overall my egg production is down about 20 %. I feed layer pellets and treat with scratch grain & black sunflower seeds.

I haven't seen any study but I wonder if type of light range 3500k vs. 6500k affects laying. Maybe low level soft light bulbs don't help.
With the low power use of led bulbs I have a few bulbs in most sheds to prevent those dark shadows.

Re: Eggs???

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 7:08 am
by Killerbunny
@LongCrow you may have something there! Also I don't think many of us have production type layers meant to produce heavily for a year. We all have different breeds, mutts and ages. Mine are a mix of heritage mix mutts and wyandottes and I was just checking they are all over 3 years old except my 3 pullets. One of mine is 6 and several are 5. Previous years the wyandottes were best for laying over the winter and finishing moult speedily but on thinking about it I had an egg drought last year for 6 weeks in December/January. Interestingly my turkey hens laid well into October this year.

Re: Eggs???

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 8:57 am
by Jaye
Thanks for the suggestion, @LongCrow . We have CFL bulbs in the coop and run, but will change them for LEDs and see if that makes a difference.

Re: Eggs???

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 9:13 am
by Ontario Chick
Back to 5-6 eggs a day, so the complaint department must have done their job, ;)

Re: Eggs???

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 11:58 am
by WLLady
mine have just started picking up again. was a good 5 weeks of next to nothing....maybe they're just getting used to the artificial lights, because it's not as bright as sunlight, but when it's dark out most of the time it's better than nothing LOL

Re: Eggs???

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 5:25 pm
by Killerbunny
OK so DH tells me that LEDs and CFLs have a different flicker frequency to incandescent so with an LED you may not get the same light as with the others???

Re: Eggs???

Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 1:56 pm
by Happy
Well it seems I just needed to say that I didnt expect any eggs. I went out to the coop this morning to find 3 eggs on the "old girls" side. One bantam from my 5 year old OEGB and 2 big girls that are 2 and 3 years old. I was more than a little surprised!