We are in Portugal in Koppen Geiger zone CSa. Mediterranean, Hot Dry Summer. Our summer heat gets up to 40+C and winter nights down to -7C. Rain generally stops in May and starts again in October.
All the data that I have previously seen regarding layer output shows high Spring and Summer rates followed by a dip through Winter. We experienced a very different curve, probably because of the summer heat putting a stress on the birds.
Year 1. 6 hens
The following data is for a small home flock of 6 layers. They were bought at point of lay and data starts from May in the first year alive. They are kept in a deep mulch run of 10x10m and fed greens from the kitchen and garden various times each week. Birds are fed non-organic layer feed, approximately 150g per bird per day.
The slight dip in the final month – April could be because of a lot of house moving for the birds. One of our mother hens went broody in the layers nest box so we had to move the layers to a new house and run. Their lay rate dropped significantly till they found a new place they felt comfortable laying in. The worst week of data from that period was omitted to maintain results. The following May lay rate was around 95% which is more in line with the trajectory which had formed from the low in September.
| May | 90,7% |
| june | 90,0% |
| July | 80,48% |
| August | 61,29% |
| September | 57,22% |
| October | 64,52% |
| November | 65,29% |
| December | 70,97% |
| January | 77,08% |
| Febuary | 83,91% |
| March | 92,47% |
| April | 90,63% |
Mediterranean Permaculture 