What i did in or around the hen house today

[akaskip]

   i added more hay and shavings to the house today, 25 degrees this morning, it won't be long before it's really gets cold.
The light i hooked up seems to have helped with egg production, i burn it a couple of hours in the evening and an hour or so before daybreak, the chickens (Rocks) are really starting to eat up the food now.

[Xenopus]

We're getting 12 eggs a day from 14 pullets, and they are still living in the chicken tractor! We've had a number of frosts but nothing below about 27F. I don't do a thing except let them out and shut them in and give them some scratch and layer pellets. (They are becoming such good scavengers that they are actually eating less feed, despite the egg production.) It can't last as the weather gets colder, but it's jolly nice now.

[akaskip]

  Not free ranging here because of predators, since we stop letting them roam there is less for them to forage, we are getting an average of 7 eggs a day from 9 layers, production had dropped to around three a day before the light was installed?, there are still some days they all produce but nothing like the spring and summer months, since the house is not insulated the light i hooked up will take a heat bulb if needed .

[Xenopus]

I must remember that bit about a light if production drops off in midwinter. Our predators tend to strike at night, so locking them up then reduces predation to pretty much zero.

[heathenmom]

We lost a chicken yesterday.    The littlest, prettiest one, Snowflake.  I have no idea what happened.  Something could have gotten in and killed her, I guess, but I didn't see any signs of that.  Nor did it look like anything tried to eat her.  I'm so sad.

[Xenopus]

We lost a chicken yesterday.    The littlest, prettiest one, Snowflake.  I have no idea what happened.  Something could have gotten in and killed her, I guess, but I didn't see any signs of that.  Nor did it look like anything tried to eat her.  I'm so sad.

So sorry, HM. You need to have more chickens. We have so many, and many are so badly behaved and obstinate, that I wouldn't miss any of them.

And you should never name anything you might ever eat! 

[heathenmom]

Ya know, X, I know that, but it's hard to explain it to a for-all-intents-and-purposes 5-year-old vegetarian. 

We do plan to get more chickens, but right now they're just in a cobbled-together coop/run and I want to have a more sturdily built coop before we increase the flock.

[Xenopus]

Ya know, X, I know that, but it's hard to explain it to a for-all-intents-and-purposes 5-year-old vegetarian. 

We do plan to get more chickens, but right now they're just in a cobbled-together coop/run and I want to have a more sturdily built coop before we increase the flock.

Yes, I quite understand. We, too, need to build our big chicken coop. The pile of lumber ready to build it has been sitting on the lawn for 6 months. Guilt, guilt. Too much to do and too little time.

Kids naming animals is the most irritating phenomenon, and you can't do a thing about it. My daughter once had a hamster she named "Penny Block the Leader." Went the way of all flesh when she insisted on releasing it from its cage and the cat got it.

[heathenmom]

LMAO at "Penny the Block Eater!"  Mine named her rocking horse "Number 10 Kitchen."  I have no idea.  She was 2. 

[Xenopus]

They are sort of in love with words at that age. That's why books like Beatrix Potter are so popular--lots of polysyllabic euphonious (sp?) words.

[ajhammered365]

 Just hopping in a little late here but I just wanted to say that as far as winter egg production my Araucanas/Americanas, they lay green eggs but I'm not sure what they are for sure, SUCK. My RIR and Orptingtons (at least that is what I THINK they are. Frigging huge hens that lay brown eggs) have kept on a trucking. Still getting at least an egg every other day, sometimes back to back, from those hens. The Araucanas/Americanas have yet to lay another egg. It was like we got the first frost, and they said the hell with it. 
 I'll keep them around until the spring time because they have very good dispostion and don't eat much. Plus my kids love them and I can't stew them quite yet. 

[Xenopus]

Interesting. I can't imagine why they are not laying. My chooks are mutts. I incubated them from assorted fertile eggs from friends with mutt flocks. We are getting about equal numbers of brown and green eggs. I've pretty much stewed the smallest birds (although I have a few more I need to get rid of). We're getting about a dozen eggs a day from 14 or 15 pullets. (It varies because there are a couple I can seldom get to go into the run at night.)

I feed them in the morning by chucking yesterday's eggshells and veg scraps + a couple of cups of cracked corn on an area I am hoping to turn into a veg garden. Then in the evening, I lock them in with 2 scoops of layer pellets. We're in upstate NY and it's getting pretty darn cold here now.

[WeedEater]

I wanted to chime in that I have NOT been impressed with Americanas as far as egg production goes, either.  I wanted to have some novelty eggs on hand for barter, plus the birds are damn cute, but the American barnyard favorites such as my RIRs and Dominiques win out hands DOWN!  I've got a couple layers that crank out two in a single day(RIRs)!  The EEs are cute, but not so cute that I need to keep them for pets.  I wish I knew the rate of lay for my Welsummers, as they might need to go as well!

Anyone seen a Mahogany RIR?  IF that's what I recently acquired, they seem to be taller, lankier, and rose combed.  Interesting, no?

[ajhammered365]

 I live in Western North Carolina, it's been getting pretty cold in the evenings but it still gets up in the 60's in the day times. But I haven't got a single green egg since our first frost. During the summer months, I was getting at least one green egg a day, sometimes two out the two hens. But nothing in 3-4 weeks.
  Not going to stew them yet as the kids have named them. But as far as buying/hatching any more chickens, I'm gonna stick to the reds. GREAT egg production, free range well, not to flighty etc. Just an all around awesome breed of chicken as far as I'm concerned. Plus the RIR hen will just about get up in your arms for you. Very friendly bird 

[justanotherdfu]

Welcome to latoc, aj.  I'm also in western NC.  I used to have RIRs.  Very tasty birds.    I think I'm about over the blue egg craving too.  I'd rather have more dependable production.