Chickens
I lost a bird a couple weeks ago to my own dog.
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How are everbody's birds coming along?Mine are doing great and starting to ramp up egg production.By summer I should be up to my armpits in eggs.LOL
Girls are great. Enjoying the milder weather.
Steady diet of organic layer crumbles and I throw out maybe 1/2 cup or so of scratch grains mixed in with some meal worms either in the run or if there is bare spot on lawn with no snow then just into the grass. The heated waterer we bought also works great. Tractor supply has relatively affordable organic layer crumbles $22 for a 40 lb bag. Not sure I noticed any difference in egg quality switching them off of the purina brand to DuMor or whatever it is now, except it’s a little cheaper.
The one hen has stopped getting pecked, but is clearly at the bottom of the pecking order now.
Egg production is lower but still getting anywhere from 2-4 a day, versus the 4-6 when the weather was nicer. We are averaging 2 dozen eggs on hand at a given time. I’m making egg breakfast 3-4 days a week (scrambled or sunny side up). We will hard boil a dozen or so every other week too.
It’s funny you might think that sounds like a lot of eggs... but on egg breakfast with the family and well use 1/2 dozen. My wife also puts one in her protein shakes.
So far so good with the girls.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Steady diet of organic layer crumbles and I throw out maybe 1/2 cup or so of scratch grains mixed in with some meal worms either in the run or if there is bare spot on lawn with no snow then just into the grass. The heated waterer we bought also works great. Tractor supply has relatively affordable organic layer crumbles $22 for a 40 lb bag. Not sure I noticed any difference in egg quality switching them off of the purina brand to DuMor or whatever it is now, except it’s a little cheaper.
The one hen has stopped getting pecked, but is clearly at the bottom of the pecking order now.
Egg production is lower but still getting anywhere from 2-4 a day, versus the 4-6 when the weather was nicer. We are averaging 2 dozen eggs on hand at a given time. I’m making egg breakfast 3-4 days a week (scrambled or sunny side up). We will hard boil a dozen or so every other week too.
It’s funny you might think that sounds like a lot of eggs... but on egg breakfast with the family and well use 1/2 dozen. My wife also puts one in her protein shakes.
So far so good with the girls.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
You guys running lights?
Figuring it was hours of daylight is why I ran a light to keep production up.
Heat from light helped keep gals happy too in winter .
No harm in not keeping them laying regular. A hen only lays so many eggs in a lifetime...
If you're not replacing hens yearly-every couple years , slowing down in winter will keep hens around longer; if eggs are expected from them.
Figuring it was hours of daylight is why I ran a light to keep production up.
Heat from light helped keep gals happy too in winter .
No harm in not keeping them laying regular. A hen only lays so many eggs in a lifetime...
If you're not replacing hens yearly-every couple years , slowing down in winter will keep hens around longer; if eggs are expected from them.
No lights or heat in our coops. Let them have a break in the winter. Getting 20+ eggs a day right now (my wife let chicken math go out of control!). 
No lights or heat.A lot of coops have burned down from lights and heat lamps.
Got my first batch of layer chicks started, and meat birds coming in 3 weeks. Coyote took 3 birds this winter which is unacceptable, i made sure my dog Rufus knew this! Hes on red alert lately, watches those birds all day.
I used to run a light for them in winter but these days i just let them rest and get fat. It does keep up production through those short days though.
What kinds of meat birds do you guys like? Have done cornish for a while but dont like how dirty and lazy they are so im trying out freedom rangers this year.
I used to run a light for them in winter but these days i just let them rest and get fat. It does keep up production through those short days though.
What kinds of meat birds do you guys like? Have done cornish for a while but dont like how dirty and lazy they are so im trying out freedom rangers this year.
How many birds does it take to get 20+ eggs/day?
No lights or heat in our coops. Let them have a break in the winter. Getting 20+ eggs a day right now (my wife let chicken math go out of control!).
i honestly don’t know how many we have. They eat 400 lbs of feed a month though... At least I get ‘free’ breakfast.
My guess would be about 53 birds.That is figuring each bird eat .25 pounds of feed per day.
i honestly don’t know how many we have. They eat 400 lbs of feed a month though... At least I get ‘free’ breakfast.
I counted at least 45 tonight! LOL They weren’t all on the roost yet, so probably missed a few.
My coup is about half finished. Lol.
At this pace I should get a few eggs sometime around 2026.
At this pace I should get a few eggs sometime around 2026.
My neighbor did freedom rangers a few years ago - made them free range and scattered their feed. Turned out great.
If you’re anything like me, you might start to recoup the cost around 2050!
You will never recoup the cost.:lol:
The truth hurts! LOL
Our egg production is up. We were getting no more than four eggs daily this winter. I think we got an even dozen on Sunday and around 8-9 yesterday out of 19 chickens. Eight of those just started to lay or are not quite there yet. The two Brahmas started to lay for sure but not sure about the other six yet, we were thinking March. We have a shop light in the coop but it only goes on for 20 minutes in the morning about sunrise or shortly thereafter and in the evening for about a half hour. The light at night helps get them back into the coop for the evening but surely not for egg production.
Any of you guys need a coop? I have one I'd sell cheap. Setup for 12 birds.
Tonight sucked. Had to cull our favorite (and oldest) hen (found her with a really bad prolapse). I know they’re ‘just chickens’, but she was the last bird from our original flock, and had a great story behind her name (Peggy). I didn’t want chickens, but I named her, and our rooster (Al). My wife thought I had taken a real interest in her chickens, and even though she didn’t like the name, it stuck. The gag went on for months, until my buddy busted out laughing when she told him their names. She was not impressed when she figured out we had a ‘Married with Children’ theme going.
RIP Peggy.
![Bird Phasianidae Beak Chicken Feather]()
RIP Peggy.
They are just chickens.But when they have names they have moved up into pet status.My wife named ours.I was happy enough just using a number system to keep track of them.
My wife named ours.I was happy enough just using a number system to keep track of them.
Out roaming the yard for the first time. The other chickens want nothing to do with the newbies.
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