good winter egg layers?

I took the course on here which was awesome as well as a few other videos and articles that the community has been so kind to provide for me. Any other suggestions for a good winter layer. Im on Long Island NY so our winter months last around 3 months. Or should stick with a breed thats a good all year round layer?

Answers

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
    edited March 2022

    @Save the frogs The issue at hand isn't a chicken breed being a winter layer or not. We have very long, cold winters in Zone 3 and we can still own any breed up here. All will lay in winter given light supplementation. The issue is the length of daylight hours to trigger laying.

    I covered that here:

    Cold doesn't stop laying, lack of enough hours of light during the day does. Stress, poor health, or molting can cause lay issues as well.

    The issue with cold is that eggs freeze. If you pick them on a regular basis or heat the coop (be very careful what you choose for either...electricity in a coop is a major cause of coop fires), you should encounter less frozen eggs.

    Giving chickens artificial light in winter is considered forcing hens. This can lead to less healthy birds (a break from laying is important for their health & the health of future chicks), and will certainly result in the bird having a shorter life. This is one of the issues in commercial chicken layer barns. Their turnover of birds is very high because of the forced laying.