Do laying hens need to change feed in winter - pay attention to first-winter chickens!

The main factor affecting the ability of chickens to lay eggs in winter is daylight hours. As the days shorten and the amount of light decreases, chickens adjust their biological rhythm, synchronizing their body activity with the natural cycles of light and darkness. As soon as the duration of daylight hours becomes less than 12 hours, egg production in adult laying hens decreases. 

As you know, specialized feed enriched with calcium is produced for laying hens, and this is quite a significant cost item - such feed accounts for about 70 percent of maintenance costs. At the same time, feed for laying hens is an objective necessity during the laying period. 

Calcium is the main component of eggshells and is directly related to keeping chickens healthy. The chicken skeleton contains a special type of bone called medullary bone, a calcium reservoir. Female birds can store calcium in their medullary bones, "pump out" the calcium to produce eggs, and then reabsorb the additional calcium for later use. This whole process is driven by hormones and is most active during the period when chickens lay eggs. What about winter? If egg production tends to zero, the need for calcium is small, so maybe keep the hens on cheaper feed until spring?

Here you need to focus on the age of the livestock. If you have young laying hens of good egg-laying crosses or breeds, they are likely to continue laying eggs throughout the winter if you provide them with good conditions in the coop. This is because these young chickens are at the peak of their reproductive development. Next year, second-winter hens will still produce one or two eggs every week, but once they are older than three years, they will take the entire winter  off .

The conclusion is simple. For laying hens of the first and second winter, the specialized feed is not changed. In the case where the flock is already mature and does not produce eggs in winter, a cheaper standard feed with 16 percent protein is quite suitable, and you will return the laying diet a couple of weeks before the start of laying. 

This leads to another useful consideration: for continuous egg production, constantly add new chickens to the flock of first-winter laying hens, and put the most unproductive old birds into fattening by the end of the season.

By correctly managing the age conveyor and understanding the nutritional needs of chickens at different stages of development and specificity, you will notice both savings and income.