5 Reasons Chickens don't lay eggs in the Winter

eggs in leaves.jpg — Our beautiful Rainbow Eggs

“What, NO eggs??!!”

Yep, it’s that time of year. FALL/WINTER

The days get shorter and obviously colder. Me NO likey.

That’s the signal for chickens to slack off. They (along with goats) don’t pull their weight around here during the winter months.

You may just assume that chickens always lay eggs like cows always have milk. That’s actually not the case for either. Cows and goats (and any other mammal) have to have a baby to produce milk. That’s why we never have goat milk in the winter ;)

But that’s for another blog on another day… We’re talking chickens here!

There’s a serious disconnect with our food, how it’s made/produced, and where it comes from nowadays.

If you have a craving for something, chances are there’s a store or restaurant nearby. Heck, in big cities, any food you can dream of is ready at your fingertips to be delivered to your door. We are conditioned to, ‘If I want it, I want it NOW!’

Look back at our ancestors that lived off the land. If they went out hunting or gathering and the game was elusive or that food was not in season, they go home empty-handed or find something else.

Same with the animals they would raise. They learned to live without eggs or preserve them when they are in abundance to use during the ‘egg-drought’ of winter.

They would get fresh milk daily from their cow or goat, and the extra was preserved through cheese or fermented into yogurt or kefir.

I would love to live back in that time!

Sorry, a little sidetracked. Now, back to chickens..

Contrary to popular belief, chickens do NOT need a rooster to lay eggs. They just start laying when they are mature enough and their body is ready to produce them.

Now, if you want baby chickens, then that’s where the rooster steps in to fertilize the egg. He can also help protect the flock but usually runs away to save his own neck.

Yeah, he’s definitely not “Dad of the year”…

So, you ask, “If chickens just lay eggs all the time, why are you out of eggs?”

Well, it’s nature’s way of giving them a break. Every winter, when it basically looks like midnight at 6 PM and the bitterly cold wind starts howling through our old farmhouse windows, our lady friends start slowing down in their egg production.

Don’t we all need a vaycay from our super stressful demanding job?

I think so!!

And if God built in a natural break period, I think we should honor that.

Plus, when it’s super cold out, if we don’t collect the eggs about 3 times a day, we get frozen solid eggs.. Crazy, right?!

Now, you ask, “How are there all those eggs in the grocery store?”

Factory farms use artificial light to keep the hens laying. All those hens never see the light of day anyway, so they would have no clue what time of year it is. Plus, they only keep them alive for 1-2 years!

Hens that are allowed to take their natural break from laying actually live longer productive lives.

If you haven’t noticed yet, we are NOT about quantity around here, but more about quality! And the quality of life for our animals!!

Reasons we are low on eggs in the winter:

Shorter days in the fall is the signal for chickens to slow down on laying eggs
Those shorter days can trigger them to molt (drop and grow new feathers)
Molting redirects the hen’s energy from laying eggs to regrowing their feathers for the cold winter months
Chickens live longer, more productive lives if allowed to take a break
We don’t use artificial light to make the chickens produce more

We still get a few eggs a day, maybe 4. And a few spring chickens from our incubator hatch should start laying soon but don’t expect 8 dozen in the store like during the spring/summer months.

Here’s waiting for spring! :)