Many hens few eggs

[frustratedearthmother]

I don't really have a designated "coop" for the birds. I've got some pens that I toss certain breeds in when I'm trying to get some pure bred eggs - but no place that's JUST for chickens. However, I have a place in the pasture that I'm considering for the new birds when they grow up a little. It's a lean to area off the red shed that I want to enclose for the birds. I "think" they'll be ok out there since the LGD's patrol that area. I just have to make their new digs dog proof or the LGD's will be eating all my eggs!

Might be a project for spring break.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You KNOW better than that-- nice try

Guess my hens are better behaved than yours, lol! ‘Course this is a Nekkie Neck and I believe they are the Einstein’s of the chicken world!

Success! This was one pf the gals that was laying upstairs!

 

[baymule]

@CrealCritter I had sex links at our old house. Our (now) oldest grand daughter was 5 in this picture. We would take a couple of chickens to the front yard for her to play with, tied to a brick so they couldn't get away. She is holding a red sex link, the other is a black sex link.

A year later, still lugging chickens around..... She and the little girl across the street would chase those hens all over the back yard. They carried them around, put them in "chicken jail" (an old rabbit cage) and had a blast with the hens. I expected those poor hens to suck their eggs up somewhere in the vicinity of their eyeballs, but they never missed a beat. Even with all the "love" they got, they still laid like champs.

does this answer your questions?

Have you hugged your chicken today?

 

[Rammy]

You just want me to trim your rooster for you.

 

[CrealCritter]

8 eggs today... I'm happy they are laying again finally. Hopefully they pick up the pace pretty quick. I'm still getting some sex links though... Maybe just six (yeah right).

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I hardly think NOT washing your hands is the best way to keep from getting an illness. SMH.... I see people who don't wash their hands after a toilet visit. I wash my hands. I don't touch doorknobs either. I don't get the flu.

https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/why-handwashing.html

 

[Mini Horses]

Night time. Check the nest at night when that broody is half asleep. I have a couple who are pretty aggressive, some only coo & growl with ruffled feathers.

Ahhhh, nasty roos. I wanted to catch one and did so while he was "busy" fighting with another. Yep, small cut but, I bleed profusely so...was good until I got to an alcohol wipe & band aid in the barn. Rooster is peened & "waiting" for his day.

 

[tortoise]

They need light. When egg production drops off we run a light bulb in there 24/7. We also have 3 windows in the coop.

They will molt even with the lights and they'll stop producing eggs until their feathers come back in. A couple months. I freeze eggs in spring and summer so I have eggs to use during molt.

We had egg eaters a couple years ago. Turned out that a dominant bird wasn't letting others eat. They would roost above the nest boxes as the only safe place, and eat eggs because it was the only food they could get to. In our case, we culled the dominant bird and the egg eating stopped. We later switched to a larger coop with more roosts, and we throw kitchen food scraps on the litter spread out so resource guarding isn't a problem anymore. I believe the egg eaters were young roosters who were also culled. I'm not sure if any of ours were egg eaters and stopped completely on their own or if they were all culled.

We also give our chickens deer and sheep heads and carcasses (ribs and spine). The pick the bone clean. We save tallow from butchering and feed that in winter. They're basically little carnivorous dinosaurs. If their feed is vegetarian you can bet there in there scheming a revolution.

You can also save eggshell, cook to kill bacteria, grind and feed back to them for calcium. But really, you will know if they need calcium - the shells will be thinner and break easily.

 

[Hinotori]

Usually culling is the only answer for egg eaters. Best to separate some off and try to determine who's doing it. They teach each other.

If I drop an egg and break it my hens will clean it up, shell and all, but they don't go to the nest to eat eggs. I've only had one egg eater and took care of her pretty quick.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I had RIR's decades ago...hens were flighty and the rooster was mean as the devil. He didn't last long and I swapped out for Black Australorps at that time - mine were awesome layers and calm girls. I had a Buff Orp rooster that lived to about 12 years old and not a mean bone in his body. My Easter Eggers are decent layers and pretty calm. I've got black and lavender orps - that are fairly decent layers and beautiful eye candy! I need new blood also...my gals ae getting old and I don't have enough young replacements...