unrelenting cold and snow, Northeast

[Carol Dee]

Son's barred Roocks have laid eggs all winter. Light in the coop for heat helped, I guess? ! 11 chickens and about 10 eggs a day!

 

[buckabucka]

I don't light mine, but I try to have a few pullets around each winter. We never had a zero egg day. I even found one in the box on the morning that it was 30 below!
The light seems to be really affecting them now. Yesterday we got 14 eggs. I have 50 hens, though
ranging from 1 - 5 years old.

 

[lesa]

I've never gone so long without eggs...at least one or two. This winter was brutal. I had 3 chickens die. We had 21 out of 23 days that were below zero in the morning. Our average temp for February was 8 degrees. So much snow on the ground, even if I shoveled they wouldn't leave the coop. They really suffered. They are perking up and acting like themselves again. They want to dig in the dirt, as much as I do! Come on Spring!

 

[so lucky]

My girls are laying fairly well now, considering nearly half of them are almost 4 years old. The three new ones I got in the fall are laying, and the other ones lay sporadically. I never did get a light in their house, so I have to give the longer daylight hours all the credit. Glad to get those eggs!

 

[valley ranch]

You, on the east coast, are getting our snow. It snowing now and for a couple day they say. We have almost no snow here in the mountains. We're at 6800 ft, we have no pack to speak of. We've gotten some big rains but that doesn't help.

Our chicken stopped laying for a couple months this year, when they started laying one died from prolapse, we did everything we could to save her.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

in the early 80's i remember being a kid and playing in/around snowbanks that seemed just as high as what we've been getting this year.

 

[buckabucka]

I'm sorry you lost hens, @lesa .
We're at 29 mornings below zero also, including -20 this a.m. My hens in the hoop coop only have a run in the summer. They do benefit from a big solar gain during the day, which I hope makes the frigid nights a little more tolerable.
The other day, they had a more than 70 degree temperature swing. -30 in the morning, mid-40's in the coop at noon (although only 10 degrees outside). DH opened their door for fresh air, and they seem a little perplexed by the snow pack (I enter from a shoveled path on the other side!).

 

[Ridgerunner]

The first time mine saw snow this year and it stuck, they didn't leave the coop for two days. Eventually one got brave and most of the others followed. Now mine go out to forage as long as some grass and weeds are sticking up through the snow.

This is an older photo. It snowed during the day when they were already out so they just stayed out.

 

[catjac1975]

Get Redstars, I have 5 and they lay in winter, even in molt. I got 3 eggs today. They are 3 years old. Redstars are from a RIR rooster over a Delaware hen, and are sex linked.

I have been thinking about red star. They are rated best egg layer by Murray Macmurray. What is their temperament like? RI reds were a mean bird for me.

 

[catjac1975]

5 more inches of snow coming tomorrow.