Hen Chronicles: To light or not to light, that is the question

Our three hens stopped laying weeks ago, as winter settled in and, day by day, their world grew ever darker. Yesterday, I finished off our dwindling stockpile of eggs when Liz stuffed three of them into a yummy but decidedly untidy egg-salad sandwich. 

"The girls" laid year-round when they were younger, albeit less frequently in the winter than during the summer, but now they've fallen into the not uncommon practice among hens of taking a winter break.

So it’s decision time. Shall we (a) break down and settle for store-bought eggs as winter drags on; or (b) simply give up on eggs until the days grow long enough to persuade Snow, Nellie and Hope to get back to work on their own initiative; or (c) trick the hens into laying sooner by lighting their coop for a few hours each day?

This is an open debate in our house. Liz thinks we should run an extension cord out to the yard and stick a bulb into the coop’s socket, on the assumption that chickens are in the business of laying eggs on a regular basis so there’s no harm in applying a little persuasion. I think we should let the hens live as their bodies dictate until there’s enough daylight for nature to take its course.

Maybe a compromise is in order, one that would give the hens a few more weeks of down time before we allow Central Maine Power to bring the illusion of spring to the coop and kick-start the laying process a bit ahead of schedule.

Time will tell.