Hen Chronicles: Spring hasn't sprung yet, but it IS coming

You may find it hard to believe, as you study the mountains of snow in your backyard and brave single-digit temps to make your rounds, but spring is on its way. The official announcement came on Friday from no less an authority than our chickens.

Well, one of them, anyway.

When Liz went out to feed “the girls” their mid-afternoon snack that day, she found a fresh egg in the nest box. "So what?" you ask. "Isn’t that what hens do?" Well, yes. But this was the first egg  from our hens in more than two months.

“I did a double take,” Liz said.

It’s normal for egg production to drop off during the winter months. In some cases, the experts concede, it even grinds to a halt. As the folks at Murray McMurray Hatchery in Iowa (from whom we bought two of our three hens) explain in their book, Chickens in Five Minutes a Day: “The length of the days and the strength of the sunlight encourage the production of the hormones necessary for the egg-laying process.”

So, the work stoppage wasn't a complete shock, but it did come as a bit of a surprise. During the last two winters, 2012-13 and 2013-14, our hens never stopped laying. They turned out fewer eggs than they had during the warmer months, but they continued to lay on a fairly regular basis.

Then came the final month of 2014. There was a lone egg on Dec. 7. After that: nothing. Yet the hens were healthy during the months that followed. They just stopped earning their room and board.

Are shorter, darker days the only culprit? Probably not. I can’t help but think that the extreme weather we’ve had so far this winter hasn’t helped. 

Then there's this. When all of your hens molt during the winter, as ours did this season, you have an added handicap. It takes protein to make eggs. It also takes protein to make new feathers. If a hen who is going bald has to “choose” between using protein to produce eggs for humans or to make a new winter coat for herself, there’s no contest.

Now, though, things are changing for the better, both in and out of the coop.

For one thing, we’ve been inching our way toward spring ever since the winter solstice, as the days lengthen ever so slowly. Fully feathered following the completion of their molt, Snow, Nellie and Hope are getting out more now that the days are longer. They even have a bit of a spring to their step, as if they can sense that we’re finally moving in the right direction.

One of the girls is now back on task. Can the others be far behind?