Emma Miller
Bring light into the henhouse
It’s been proven by bird owners that chickens lay a lot more eggs if they have light in the hen house. One small lamp or a solar-powered lantern is enough. Turn the light on at night and there will be more eggs. It is also easier to collect eggs and clean the pen when the light is on.
Make sure the hens don’t peck at the eggs
Many chickens eat their own eggs with gusto, which are already scarce in the fall. To wean them from this bad habit, equip the nest so that the hens can’t see their eggs after they lay them. To do this, place a barrel horizontally and cover the entrance on top with a heavy cloth. The birds will not see their eggs in the dark and will not peck them.
Often the hens eat the eggs because of a lack of protein in the body. In this case, you can add fishmeal or chopped boiled eggs to the feed.
Add vitamins to the chickens’ diet
With the onset of frost and the fading of greenery, birds have a deficit of vitamins in the body. If you enrich their diet, they will lay much better. To do this, add to the feed shells, fresh vegetables, and wheat grains. Also, chickens love nettles, weeds, and beet leaves.
Put a basin of sand in front of the hens.
Chickens may refuse to lay eggs because they have parasites in their feathers. Birds clean their feathers with sand, so it is recommended to put a big bowl of sand in the hen house. The layers will bathe and sleep in it.
Speed up the molting of chickens
Once a year, chickens molt – it usually happens at the end of autumn. During this period, they stop laying eggs because they spend all their energy on molting and have no energy left to lay eggs. Bird owners can speed up molting. To do this, they add protein to the feed (meat and bone meal, milk powder, etc.), and feed them seeds and corn. A veterinarian may also recommend medications to speed up the birds’ molting.
Give hens more wet food
Chickens lay worse on dry grain and compound feed. To get more eggs, feed laying hens with seasonal vegetables and wet food: pumpkin, zucchini, fodder pumpkin, and corn. In winter, boil potatoes with grain for the hens and then mash them with grain bran.
