It’s not technically yet winter here, but it’s getting very close..and my chickens are still laying!
All of my layers are in their first year, with three of them having just begun laying a mere 3-5 weeks ago. 🥚
➡️ Providing adequate nutrition and homing is essential for supporting your girls to lay during the colder months.
🚫💡I don’t choose to provide light for them, as I want their bodies to rest and to only continue laying naturally. I also don’t provide heat for them, allowing their body temperature to calibrate to their environment.
🍳 What I do is offer them plenty of protein-rich snacks, such as black soldier fly larvae and scrambled eggs with herbs. I also toss them handfuls of black oil sunflower seeds - I do this shortly before they go into roost for the evening to give them a little internal heat from the carbs.
🌬️ I also staple up plastic onto their run walls to break the wind and keeps things dry. This is where they end up making their dust baths during the colder months (their normal spot under the evergreens doesn’t get enough sun to dry out). It’s important they have a dry place to bathe all winter long.
🪟 Their coop windows are also closed, but the tops are left slightly cracked open for ventilation. The condensation from their hot bods breathing all night is no joke! Not allowing this air to escape can end up in mold growth, as well as potential frostbite of your flock’s comb and feet.
Watch my video on who lays what color eggs here.
How do you support your flock during the winter? Are your girls still laying? 🐓