'Pyrethrin' :) Nature's bug killer from flowers!

Chickens naturally take a break in Winter, and rev up the egg laying again come Spring. I have 35 chickens and am only getting about 3-4 eggs per day here in sunny so. California. Come Springtime they'll all be egg maniacs again with all the hollering and cackling that goes along with it. :) A lot of mine have been molting right now, too, and when a hen is molting she ceases egg laying during that time. It takes a LOT of energy to grow feathers!

You don't say what area you are in, but if you get snow, cold temps and gloomy days and your birds are otherwise healthy, I'm willing to bet the drop in production is normal. Make sure you are providing a varied diet including fresh greens, calcium and protein. Some people use light bulbs to provide a few extra hours of light each day, which helps stimulate egg laying to a point. I prefer to allow Mother Nature to know best and give my girls the seasonal break.

Because I know how much noise and hysterical excitement will herald Spring in a few months. :)

Velvet ~:>

We are in West Texas. We've actually had two snow storms already. Not bad ones but bad enough.
The chickens were all grazing in our alfalfa field so that has the fresh greens covered pretty well. I can't believe it is still green after 6 inches of snow but it is. It's not growing any more though and I had to clear out all our irrigation pipes for the winter so it's not being watered either.

The roosters are still grazing it.

I can't wait till spring! I hate these winters we get. My whole time in the military, 40 years as a dependant and active duty myself, I only spent maybe 2 years total in a place that actually gets cold in the winter. I used to plan to retire in the PI or maybe southern california but recent events and the business I now own prevent that so I am just dealing with it. Texas is a nice place to farm at least.

I put a digital timer in the coop last night and set it to come on a few minutes after sunrise and off about 8 PM. It's nice and warm in there but maybe this will help out a little without wearing them out early. This will help my son feeding them too. I usually tell him to go give the birds dinner about 5pm but he is so slow he doesn't find his way out there till 7 or so. He doesn't eat till all the animals are fed and that didn't even make him speed up. Teenagers.

I just went out and checked all the birds myself again. I do that at least once a day. I checked real hard for mites this time, picking up every hen. All clean. One of our old hens got tore up pretty bad by the roosters this year too and she has almost all her feathers back now. Everybody seems happy and healthy. I know they must be enjoying the break from the roosters.

My guess is that they don't like being cooped up after being allowed to free range. Is there a reason why they can't free range in the winter?

We have 33 hens (and three roos) and they have cut down on their laying but we are still getting about a dozen eggs a day. We don't provide extra lighting because we feel they need a break in the winter.

Well, we know winter is finally here, no eggs today. :(

Velvet ~:>