We do not supplement our chickens with light all year-long like many do. They are given an egg laying holiday. Winter is a chickens natural time to molt and stop laying eggs. Normally hens need 10-12 hours of daylight to lay an egg. The short days of winter cause this egg hiatus. We let our hens go through at least part of the natural cycle of things. Our hens stop laying sometime between October 1st and December 1st. During that time there is lots of feathers flying as they take care of their seasonal molt. As soon as we go into the new year and the days start to get longer the holiday is over. We start turning on the coop light when my husband leaves for work at 7am. Instantly the days become longer. It takes several weeks sometimes more for them to start laying again. This year they have started at a new early record, the second week of February. And as the keeper of chickens we could not be more thrilled.