Let’s talk eggs…have your chickens stopped laying? Are you having trouble getting local farm fresh eggs right now?
Why? Chickens over a year old go through something called molt. It is a natural process that typically occurs each year in the fall; however, it can happen at other times such as when a hen has been broody. When molting begins hens will stop laying eggs, and both roosters and hens will lose and regenerate new feathers. Sometimes the molting process is slow and you hardly notice the feather loss and other times you walk out to a rough looking hen who is missing most of her feathers. Molting can last anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks! Between the molting season and winter, egg production can drop to almost nothing. A hen’s ability to produce an egg is dependent on daylight; and they need approximately 14-16 hours of daylight to produce a single egg. Here in Ohio, we get around 6-7 hours of daylight during December and January. Commercial/conventional egg production facilities provide artificial light (year-round) to encourage high production, some farmers & homesteaders may also provide artificial light also. Here at FFF we prefer not to artificially light our coop and allow our girls the break. One of the ways we attempt to offset the molt season is by getting Spring chicks every year. The Spring chicks we got this year have started laying eggs over the past two months.
Why is this important? For us, our customers, and anyone else who has had the opportunity to enjoy pasture-raised farm fresh eggs, no store-bought commercial/conventional eggs can compare. When (if) you get your eggs from the local store do you know what those “labels” on the egg carton actually mean? If you are anything like us…we did not. We thought buying “free-range” meant that the chickens ranged outside in an enclosure and had an opportunity to eat bugs, scratch around and were happy. Not all farms and labels are created equally…