While the girls were a little slow to actually start laying eggs, they now gift us with at least 3 eggs every day, rain, shine or freeze. The temps have dropped down below freezing the past few nights and we are still receiving the gifts of 1.5 dozen eggs per week. They seem to have no problem leaving their coop on the frosty chilly mornings. So, given the year we seem to be having, selecting the Russian Orloffs was a good choice. But that's the nature of our area. Even when the temps are not yet freezing, our east winds create a wind chill factor that routinely drops the feeling of the air temps down into the 20F. But the girls truly don't seem fazed by the cold winds. It's all good and the eggs are great!
We do still have a small heat lamp in the coop that comes on at dusk and turns off at dawn. So they have a little extra warmth at night, just in case. Then, we also have a 40W white light that comes on at 4:00 a.m. to add that extra little boost of light for them in the mornings. By 5 pm, it's totally dark here, now. So they really are only getting about 13 hours of light per day, but they are still laying. That's pretty good :)
