Eggs. Winter. Keeping up is hard to do.
The update on eggs – seems that everyone is always asking for them and that the Harvest Moon Local Food Initiative farmers have a hard time keeping up! Winter time is here which means a shift in our ability to provide these delicious eggs.
By Lisa and Greg
http://www.harvestmoonfood.ca/meet-your-farmer/81-spring-creek-farm.html
We love our free range eggs just as much as anyone – maybe even more. It makes us sad to report that in the winter, you can expect a decrease in winter egg laying production. The chickens who are laying the eggs kind of have a dormant period because of the cold weather. The free range system of egg production means that the hens have a much better life style than the “factory hens” that live in tight cages in barns. However, they are also affected by changes in temperature. They are ususally heritage breeds and their egg laying production is sometimes seasonal. We do not push them hard in a heated barn for egg production like the factory laying barns.
Our birds still lay eggs, but in smaller quantites in the cold. But get ready for the spring because they do double as soon as the weather warms up.
Just so you know, the “factory” chickens would not lay one egg all winter if the temperature in the barn goes below 25C or so. Our chickens have a more natural lifestyle, and we do not heat the coops to that temperature. They are still “free range” in their bright, open coops, and are able to come and go, in and outside, get to fly and eat snow as they wish, eat green hay and seeds, and have a good life. But the reduction in eggs is the side effect of that lifestyle.
I hope you will understand if we have a limited amount of eggs at times over the winter. That being said, we will also do our best to maintain a humane system of raising our chickens, and heat the coops as much as possible to bring you as many of the eggs as we can that are so delicious.
Thanks again,
Lisa Clouston & Greg Wood
Lisa and Greg are members of the Harvest Moon Local Food Initiative. A grassroots organization working to create a sustainable local food system in Manitoba. Click here to get involved. Click here to buy food.
We put a 100 watt light bulb in the hen house with a timer. It comes on at about 5 in the morning, and shuts off at 10:00 a.m. They need 12 hours of light to lay eggs like they do in the summer.
Cindy
My hens take a annual holiday from laying in late January, We call it “Henopause”.
Kate
Working with chickens does seem to bring out the punster in people. Love ‘henopause’! Ours are in the Joy Cluck Club.
Hi, we keep high production all winter by having our hens start their laying cycle in fall. We find they don’t need 25C but just above freezing (8C is perfect) and on nice days we open the door to the outside in the afternoon after we have collected. Having said all this, we do have a slow down in production mid summer just before their first anniversary. Natural light is important and I love the large windows I can see in the photo.