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Egg production stopping in the winter? Read our secrets to keeping happier, productive chickens
As winter arrives with our very first snow storm this weekend and the chickens spending more and more time in and around their coop, it's my cue to begin to step up my chicken game to make sure we do not loose egg production. Our small flock gets to free range throughout the year and are often found foraging in our pastures. We do not offer artificial lights and believe it's in the best interest for egg production to slow - but not stop completely. The girls work hard all spring and summer and deserve a break, plus that break extends their productive life, continuing to lay into their third, fourth and even fifth year.
Our top tips to still get a fair amount of eggs throughout the winter to continue to supply our family and those who buy eggs from us without artificial light are listed below.
Tip #1 - Sprout your own seeds
This is our first year sprouting seeds and the girls love it! Our primary goal with the sprouting of seeds and in turn, having them forage for them was as enrichment, but sprouted grains become 40-50% more digestible to the bird, which means they are getting more nutrition and fiber. We decided to sprout whole oats as they are locally available to us, our sheep love them too and they are fairly inexpensive. Sprouted grains are also loaded with beta-carotene and chlorophyll which gives us that unique, free range, darker yolk.
The Steps:
In a mason jar, place approximately 1/4-1/2 cup of seeds.
2. Soak the seeds, fully submerged in clean, fresh, tap water over
night. I cover the top of the mason jar with cheese cloth for easy draining without loosing any seeds.
3. Drain the grains. You have the option to place them in another container at this point, if wanted or needed, but I leave them in the mason jar.
4. Water and drain the sprouts daily.
5. I start another mason jar of seeds on day 2, so I never run out of sprouted seeds.
6. My chickens prefer to eat the sprouts on day 4-5, but see what works best for you and your girls!
Tip #2 - Dig bins
Where do those oat sprouts go? Right to our chickens dig bin in their coop. Scratching and taking dust bathes are species specific behaviors that the chickens need access to even when the ground is covered in snow or frozen. Offering a dig bin will also reduce the likelihood of your chickens developing lice or mites. The chickens have a nice sized dig bin in their coop. I encourage the use of the dig bin by sprinkling the sprouts in the bin, as well as seeds and other produce.
"Scratching and taking dust bathes are species specific behaviors that chickens need access to "
What do you put in the dig bins? Well, that varies. We typically put some soil from a garden bed or part of the pasture that needs a little chicken poop fertilizer and effective chicken claw action to break up some clumps, then we return it to the bed or pasture it came from and give them some new stuff. Many people use a mix of non-fertilized garden soil and sand. It's really up to you what you and your flock prefers.
Tip #3 - Enrichment options
One of the easiest and best things you can do for your chickens is to offer enrichment puzzles. The one pictured above, I picked up at a discount store for a couple dollars. It's traditionally a dog slow feeder, but it's one of our chickens favorites! There are several food puzzles on the market made for chickens - I own those too! But, really just about anything will work. I put a wide variety of items in our food puzzles from scratch grains, fresh produce to different varieties or types of chicken food, like seen above. This is Gallo Pro from our local feed mill, Leland Mills.
Offering food puzzles to your chickens gives them something to do on those, cold, wet days when they just want to be inside their chicken coops. It keeps them busy, happy and not picking on their coopmates and gives them some extra nutrients to continue to produce eggs!
Tip #4 - Fresh Produce
This one is the obvious one, right? It gets much trickier and more expensive in the winter months. We offer fresh produce daily by primarily planning our garden to accommodate the chickens needs during the winter and offering them varieties of produce in the winter months of in-season or on sale options. Some great ideas of reasonably priced winter produce from the grocery store are squash, pomegranates, bananas, leafy greens like kale and spinach, broccoli, and even carrot peelings are great options. I've found that my chickens refuse "new" things the first time I offer it, so I will pair it with something they really enjoy, like the sprouted grains. The second time I offer the "new" item, they gobble it down - so don't give up on the first try!
I dehydrate all of our edible flower varieties towards the end of the summer, this includes bachelor buttons, sunflowers, roses, clover blossoms, coneflowers, and any squash blossoms that probably won't produce a fruit by summers end. The chickens gobble these flowers up during the winter months - another great option to toss in the dig bins.
We also store crops for the winter for our chickens. One of their favorite and more enriching treats is corn on the cob. You can purchase large quantities in the summer at your local farmers market (ask about a 10 or 20lb bag!) or grow it yourself. Then, freeze it for corn all winter long. We set it out on the counter for a few hours before giving it to the girls and they typically work on it for an hour or so, getting every last kernel. We also do this with strawberries and blueberries - pick them up in season in the summer months and freeze for the long, cold winter.
Keep your chickens active
Enrichment is one of the best things you can do to continue to see eggs in the winter - bored chickens create problems - don't let yours become a problem! Comment below any other ideas we haven't heard about yet to keep your girls happy in the winter months.
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