I love my chickens. They are the
most easy to care for and more rewarding of all farm animals, in my opinion.
However, I am also a pragmatist. My chickens are here to DO something, and that
something is lay eggs. These are not pets; they are food producers that I also
find beautiful and entertaining. I provide them with a clean living
environment, free-ranging fun, food, and protection. In turn, they provide me
with eggs. When they stop laying eggs, my family eats the chicken. Some chicken
owners may wince at this outlook, but my family lives on a shoestring, and we
can’t afford to feed animals that aren’t giving something back. Our dog
provides protection, alerts us to strangers and danger, and hunts with my
husband while also being a great companion. Our sheep provide lambs for food,
and they eat down weeds and pasture. Even our cats keep the mice population
down. I strive to give each animal a happy life, but to me it must also be a
useful life.
As you can imagine, I want to keep
my hens laying throughout the winter. This can be a problem as the temperature
drops and there is less light. The old proverb “An ounce of prevention is worth
a pound of cure” is so true when it comes to raising animals. Here are the
challenges you must combat in the winter and how to counteract them.
Most animals need shelter in winter,
and chickens are no exception. In fact, if you want eggs it’s best to provide a
shelter that is well sealed against the elements. Not only will this keep your
hens safe from colder temperatures and predators, but it will also give them a
place to lay your eggs that you can find and easily access.
My Solution: Shelter doesn’t have to
be fancy for chickens to be happy. If you don’t already have a chicken coop, an
old truck cap is enough in a pinch. You could also use straw bales with a sheet
of plywood over it. It simply needs to be draft free, keep out the rain and
snow, and be fairly easy for you to get into to check for eggs. There are quite
a lot of ideas for homemade, do-it-yourself chicken coops on the Internet and
youtube.com. It is also good to give the chickens a dedicated laying box that
is secure from predators. Some people build boxes, while others use old milk
crates or other existing boxes. The key is for the chickens to be able to easily
get inside the laying box, yet have some sides for a bit of privacy, and hold a
bit of dry straw or wood chips to provide a soft spot for egg laying/dropping.
Many homesteaders believe in letting
chickens forage for themselves, while not providing food for them. This may
work okay in the summer when food is plentiful, but if you want eggs in winter
you will need to provide feed to your chickens. Also, it is pretty cruel to not
feed your chickens in winter when there is so little to forage for. Often, in
the winter the ground is frozen, making it hard for them to scratch beneath the
surface to locate any bugs or seeds.
My Solution: Buying bags of layer
pellet feed is the best option. Also, providing corn or scratch will help your
chickens maintain healthy condition through the cold with its nice high-protein
content. The more energy your chickens expend on keeping warm, the less eggs
they will lay, as that energy is going to come from either their body or their
food.
Some chickens are better suited to
certain climates than others. In fact there are some chicken breeds that will
literally die if they go through a typical northern winter. So breed selection
is very important to your winter egg production.
My Solution: If you live where it
gets cold and dark in winter, then choose chickens that are known to lay well
in winter. My favorites are Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, and Araucanas,
because we live in a very cold winter area. A good place to compare different
breeds of chicken is the Murray McMurray Hatchery website. In their
descriptions of the different breeds they specifically note which chickens are
good at winter laying.
This, in fact, is the most important
and least understood reason that chickens stop laying. Chickens need a certain
amount of daylight to keep laying. When it falls off during the short winter
hours of daylight, their bodies tell them to stop laying until spring’s
extended sun hours arrive.
My Solution: Put a light in your
chicken coop and leave it on. You can shut if off at night, if you want, but we
don’t; the light additionally adds heat, and the chickens do fine.
Chickens need heat to produce eggs.
If they are too cold, they will stop laying because most of the food they eat
goes to heat production rather than toward egg production.
My Solution: The easiest way to heat
your coop is have a heat lamp hanging from the roof inside. These can be picked
up at any feed store, or even Walmart, for less than $30.00. You can choose
from white or red bulbs. The bonus to red is that it helps to prevent chickens
from picking at each other. An additional way to keep heat inside the coop and
cold outside is to seal any holes and drafts; this will help immensely.
What you use for chicken litter will
depend on your personal preferences. I like pine wood shavings because they mix
well with the manure and absorb and dry it while also adding a nice scent.
Having a layer of dry litter is important to laying production because if you
are wet you are cold. Also chicken manure is high in ammonia and lets off the
stuff in large amounts. This can irritate your chickens’ lungs. Your chickens
will be spending much more time in their coop during cold weather so keeping
their coop dry and their air clean will help with egg production. It is
important to remove dirty litter as well. If an egg gets broken into the
litter, it is important to remove the broken egg, dirty litter, and to clean so
that there is no remaining egg contents. Otherwise, the chickens may eat it and
develop a taste for their own eggs.
My Solution: Every week, I spread an
inch or more of litter in their coop. You should adjust the frequency and
amount applied, as needed. I also replace litter as it gets dirty and try to
keep the area clear of any excrement. This helps me have clean eggs that don’t
require washing. (Leaving the bloom on the eggshell helps seal the pores and
make the egg stay fresh longer.)
Egg laying chickens use alot of
nutrients to produce an egg every day. Providing a balanced diet is easy if you
use layer pellets.
My Solution: Provide crushed oyster
shells for added calcium, even if you’re using layer pellets. Chickens will
take what they need. Providing grit is also a good idea, since the dirt and
gravel may be covered with snow, and if you are feeding corn or scratch, they
need the grit to grind the grains.
Cod Liver Oil is an essential supplement that I have found highly
effective to keeping my chickens laying. The reason why cod liver oil is
important is that not only does it provide omega oils, it also is a great
provider of vitamin D. Now the interesting thing about vitamin D is that it is
produced by sunshine. Human bodies cannot produce it on its own. This is why
mothers, a hundred years ago, made their children take a spoonful of cod liver
oil every day in the winter. Are vitamin D levels an influence on egg
production, cuing the chicken’s brain back into laying? I don’t know, but it
works every time I use it.
How to Use Cod Liver Oil: I simply
buy a big bottle of the cheaper Cod Liver liquid jells and cut them open. Then
I squirt them into the water of my chickens. That way they get the same dose
approximately. I figure one pill per chicken for a few days until egg
production starts up again. Then I give them the same dose a few times a week.
Be sure to use this in conjunction with a light in your coop.
Chickens loves fresh green stuff
like lettuces, grass, and weeds. You can sprout your own greens at home super
easy. I love my Easy Sprouter, which you
can find on amazon.com. Additionally, you can give them leftover salad that has
wilted. Another option is to ask your local grocer for produce that they are
going to throw out. Your chickens will bless you for the treats. Just avoid
onions, garlic, cabbage, and any of the brassica vegetables (broccoli, cabbage,
kale, and brussels sprouts), as they can give a bad taste to your eggs.
I hope this helps other chicken
raisers to keep their hens healthy and laying all winter.
From the Survival Blog
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