what's with them chickies,,,,

  Well, bout two months ago my favorite chickie Hen died one morning,,,wasn' too cold that night but found her and was still warm,,,never figured what happened,,,?? 

 Well, now, for the last 3 weeks the other 2 hens stopped laying any eggs,,,,?  WTH,??

 My neighbor said chickies always go thru this "stage" after winter,,,but I ain't ever heard this chit,,,,anyone??

Chickens go through what's called "Molt", and during that timeframe, will often either reduce, or stop laying altogether.  As Wayne noted, they'll also respond to shorter days, so up here, we keep lights on them to keep production going through shorter daylight season.  If they get stressed by extreme cold or other circumstances, they'll stop laying.  If they're not getting enough food, they'll stop, or reduce laying too.

My henhouse is set up with frost-proof constant-flow watering trough, low-power ceramic radiant heaters on PID controls (but not really running high to warm, just keep their combs from getting frostbite while on the perch).  My henhouse as good ventilation, but isn't drafty, it's well armored and it is very easy to keep clean, the door out to the pen is an elevated drawbridge that locks tight, and will soon be totally automatic, as will be the metering feeder dispenser.  I just installed a new nesting box... the BestNest, with it's egg-capturing tray facing out into the room (opposite the hen pen) so we can now feed, water, and collect eggs, open and close the door, and operate the lights all without going into the pen.  This new flock (16 birds) should start laying any time now...

 MR JAY,,,,ypu ARE a character,,,you know that???  LOL,,,,But,,,I Do enjoy your humor,,,I don't think I'm gonna spend that much efforts on trying to "TRICK" them chickies' daylight times,,,,,LOL. Thanks for the suggestions, tho,,,,

Joe, ya better watch out. Them dang Chickies will be out marchin' around with protest signs sayin' it's to dang cold!   LOL! 

Steve@B&B

  Well,,,WHOOP DI DOO,,,them chickies started laying eggs again,,,!!! I got 3 eggs yesterday SO, no more store boughts,,,!!!  Many THANKS for all your comments and suggestions,,Guys!!!!!

only AC orange wrote: All this chatter about chicks n eggs, I have a ????. At what age do pullets start laying? I was asked this question last evening at a block party and did't have answer. thanks

16 to 20 weeks. Birds like a red sex link early and often. Some of the others come on later. First pullet eggs not much bigger than a large grape and might be found in a nest box, or just as likely on the ground under a bush.  Month or so later, large going to extra large and jumbo.

Normal production is about 250 eggs per year for first couple years. They do slow down or shut down in winter, and that is not a bad thing. 15 below in eternal darkness is tough on em.

only AC orange wrote: All this chatter about chicks n eggs, I have a ????. At what age do pullets start laying? I was asked this question last evening at a block party and did't have answer. thanks

Just got our first egg from the new flock today, at 21 weeks... of course, I'm running lights from basically 4:30am until 10pm.

Les-  the PID controller is an off-the-shelf type used for maintaining temp in reptile tanks... just so happens that it was in the right range for me to control the heat in our chick brooder.  The heater is a typical hanging or clamp-on type aluminum-reflector 'heat lamp' fixture, and in it, rather than a heat lamp, is a threaded in ceramic heating element. 

The PID is not exactly this one, but close enough:

https://www.amazon.com/Century-Thermostat-Controller-Germination-40-108%C3%82%C2%B0F/dp/B01I15S6OM/ref=sr_1_31?keywords=reptile+heater&qid=1674272956&sr=8-31

and the ceramic element:

https://products.blains.com/600/140/1403615.jpg

https://www.farmstore.com/product/10-aluminum-heat-lamp-brooder-300w/

And I didn't set the henhouse up with the intention of 'heating' it... we moved the chicks out of the brooder, and the next several days were exceptionally cold, so I hung the brooder heat lamp in one corner of the henhouse where they were huddling, and it helped 'em out.  Later on, I suspended it off to one side of the roost (which they hadn't gotten the hang of yet) and they finally moved up to the roost, high near the ceiling, where the heat would kinda stay, and they hung out up there for a while.  It's been warm recently, so the PID dialed back (I had it set around 45F) and shut itself down, but it's back on tonight... I could probably shut it down and pull it out with no detrimental effect, but we've been trying to keep them well fed, watered, illuminated, etc, so they'd start laying even in the really cold days.

My knee is really hurting me tonight, so I'm sitting at my desk patterning out the pieces for the electric door operator, and the feed metering unit.  I'll have the door and drive done over the next couple weeks, and probably put it in sometime around March on manual operator control, and same for the improved electric feeder.  I picked up a couple closeout-deal photosensors (one for east- sunrise, and one for west-sunset) for detection...  and six solid-state relays (to control things) arrived in the mail... once I've been manually running them for a while, I'll get the ARDUINO code dialed in close enough for an initial test... then I'll start running the automatic sequence and adjust it for effective operation.

As far as 'having a rooster around'... that's an augmentation of the hormonal factor, and most of it comes around to comfort.  If you've got several roosters that fight eachother, or peck and spur the hens, it's a problem... but if the roosters fend off mice, rats, snakes, and other predators, the hens will feel more comfortable, and thus, more productive.  I have an agri-science buddy who's doing an experiment with his flock right now... he's got three LCD screens visible from the inside of the henhouse, with speakers... and he runs video clips of a rooster crowing... and he runs it some days, and not others, and counts the variation of egg production.  I don't know that he's come to a conclusion with that, but he HAS found that if he plays a football game on one screen, that the hens all tend to go lay during halftime commercial timeouts, and between games...

Hey Joe-

We're at 14 eggs a day for 16 birds...

We had one day of 17 eggs... which means we've got a joker in the henhouse...

No, but y'know, Joe- we've suddenly somehow developed LOTS of friends...

We probably only go through a dozen and a half a week, and we're getting eight dozen, that's six and a half doz, and we've got buyers at $6/doz, so there's $35... a bag of feed goes 2wks at $17/bag... so we're netting at least $20/wk in eggs... not that we need it, or care... but it's not LOSING us anything, right?