How to keep your hen laying in winter

In cold winter, hen is difficult to lay. Some chicken cannot lay in winter like Mediterranean class or Asia Class. Naturally, a hen will stop laying in winter. They need to rest their body that it is important for the body. For backyard chicken, you have better to rest your chicken rather than forcing it to lay.

If you have a flock for business, you can "force" the eggs to lay. It is because you will lose if they take the rest. They still must pay for chicken food, human, electric, and others.

If you still want to produce eggs in winter, you can do like this:

1. Add additional light in the cage. It can reduce their cold suffered in winter.

2. Provide warm water. Do not let the water frozen. Lack of water can make the chicken stop to lay. You can put electric dog bowl that keep the water frozen. You can replace the water often.

3. Food the chicken food with high protein. They need consumption for carbohydrate to warm their body.  They also need protein and calcium that is very important for egg production. Some article suggest kitchen chow and grind with cracked corn. I think it is not good because kitten chow can affect the taste of egg. You should buy the food at poultry shop or you can mix high protein chicken food. The protein for food is: soy, meat powder, fish powder, and more.

4. The air circulation must be good. Make a good ventilation system so the hen can breath well. Do not close the coop so the air cannot in or out.

5. Put hay inside the coop so the hen can lay in it. It can make the chicken warm.

Notice: Force your hen lay in winter could be loss you. To make the hen lays in winter, you need to provide additional food, light and human power. You must pay more for labor too because only few people who want works in winter. Therefore, you need to calculate the benefit of laying eggs in winter. Compare the cost with the egg prices.