Heather of The Homesteading Hippy is sharing tips on how to keep your chickens laying all winter. It seems that lighting does matter. Read on!
To keep our chickens laying all winter long, we do something that many other homesteaders don’t. I’m talking about keeing lights on in a chicken coop over winter. A chicken needs a certain number of daylight hours to lay, and during the winter, they don’t get that. So, we add artificial light to keep them laying.
Now, I know what people say about raising animals naturally, and giving the girls a laying break and all, but I am going to layout the reasons why we do this.
1. The chickens are part of our family, but everyone here has to pull their weight. They continue to eat feed all winter long, as well as use straw for bedding, drink water that requires heating, and they still need us to take care of htem. I personally can’t fathom the idea of feeding them all winter, AND having to go buy eggs. Since they can’t forage for bugs and other feed with ice and snow on the ground, they eat more. At the rate of $15 a bag of feed per week, that just doesn’t add up economically for us.
2. We use a timer, and don’t have to “remember” to shut off the lights. We are also only adding continue here.…….
Connect with Heather on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for more inspiration when it comes to raising your chickens!
0
1k
0
134
