Finally figured out why my hens stopped laying for 2 weeks straight

I was going crazy trying to figure out why my 5 hens went from laying every day to nothing for 14 days in a row. Changed their feed, checked for mites, even bought a fancy new waterer. Then my neighbor Mike came over and asked if I'd switched up their light schedule. Turns out I had accidentally bumped the timer on their coop light and it was coming on 2 hours later than usual. After I fixed it back to a consistent 14 hours of light, they started laying again within 3 days. Has anyone else had a simple lighting mistake mess with their flock's production?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliviadixon28d ago

Wait, you had me at light schedule. I used to roll my eyes at people obsessing over lighting, figured chickens were tougher than that. But then my own flock pulled the same silent protest last winter, and yeah, it was totally the timer being off. Changed my mind real quick.

eric_ramirez6728d ago

Oh man, I totally get that. It's funny how we think chickens are these tough little dinosaurs that can handle anything, and then they prove us wrong with something as simple as a light timer off by an hour. I had the same wakeup call with my birds last autumn, they just stopped laying cold until I figured out the day length was messing with their heads. It's one of those lessons you only learn by messing it up yourself, right?