Author: Anna & Mark

Why do chickens lay fewer
eggs in the fall?  As I mentioned in a previous post, one issue is
day length — when there are fewer than 14 hours of light, chickens
lay less.  A solution to this problem is to turn
on a light in the chicken coop, but my data shows that our
lighted coop only boosted egg production slightly.



Another common cause of
lowered egg production in the autumn is molting.  After eighteen months
in their adult feathers, our hens are starting to look scruffy, so I
wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that an autumn molt is the
cause of our paucity of eggs.  If so (assuming we keep the coop
light on), we should see egg production increase within a couple of
months.



We keep track of how many
eggs we get every day, but I’m starting to think that we need to be a
bit more scientific.  Our laying flock consists of both Black
Australorps and Cuckoo Marans, and it’s pretty easy to
tell their output apart by eggshell color.  Maybe if I can talk
Mark into separating out the data from the two breeds, I’ll be able to
tell you who’s a better fall and winter layer.



I’d be curious to hear
from those of you who also keep track of your laying stats.  What
breeds lay well for you all winter long?  How many eggs per bird
per week do you average?

The time has come to think
about heated
waterers
again.  For those of you who haven’t been following along, you can
read the last couple of years worth of experiments by following the
link above.  If you’re more of a facebooker, you can see my
favorite heated chicken waterers in visual form here.



Even though we like
several of the heated waterer options we’ve used and seen, there’s
still room for improvement.  Our heat
tape chicken waterer
did a great job last winter, keeping the flock’s drinking water thawed
until we hit a low in the mid teens, but I think the design could use
some work on the ease-of-construction side.  Perhaps this ultra-cheap
heated bucket would
make a good starting point?



I
also want to make the insulation a bit more high tech (and less
clunky).  Roland pointed out that a circle of sytrofoam on top of
the lid would be a great addition to our Reflectix wrap, and I also
want to improve on the wrapping design.



Meanwhile, as I was
perusing old photos, I remembered Marvin
Bartel’s old design
from a few years ago.  I wonder if a thermocube plus a better
heating element could help keep the nipples thawed at yet lower
temperatures.



Any new heated chicken
waterer designs kicking around out there?  I’d love to see your
photos — email them to info@avianaquamiser.com and I’ll share them on the
blog.