Couple questions on deep litter and feathers

I use a timer. I had to change location when turkey grew tall enough to reach she kept taking it apart. My Naighbor culls some of his layers every fall. Less to feed in winter and then hatches new in early spring. He does eat the birds that are slowing down laying and unwanted roosters. . It's very efficient.
Ak rain

Yes, I use light timers, they are dirt cheap, under $10... Right now due to coop and run renovations my birds are spending this winter entirely indoors... Thus this year I don't have to adjust for sunset, instead I'm holding 'summer' light hours all winter... My lights come on at 5:30 AM off at 8:00 AM (plenty of sunlight coming through the coop windows by this time) they then come on again at about 3:00 PM (sun is starting to go down) and finally shut off at 9:00 PM for the night... This way the birds gets a steady dose of 15:30 hours of light...

Next year when everything is dialed in I will have a different lighting schedule, one that holds 15:30 for the chickens, and another for my peafowl and guinea fowl that will be in a separate part of the coop and their light hours will not be altered so that they go into spring breeding and egg laying...

As for the type of light to use, for small coops I recommend an 18" or 24" florescent under the cabinet light, as it poses little fire risk... You should use 'warm white' bulbs 2700K in color is normal...

Just an example of the light, not a vendor recommendation... These style ones are nice as the tube is fully enclosed so no breakage risk...

http://www.amazon.com/Under-Cabinet-Light-Fluorescent-Corded/dp/B000BQMQ96

As for the timer, cheap analog ones work very well...

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Good-Choice-24-Hour-Lighting-Timer/17279123

During a molt, I try to allow the girls access to higher protein feed than a normal layer ration. Because it is in the fall and I have new meat coming for my freezer, this often means I chop up or cook older cuts of meat or any liver I haven't eaten from last fall's meat harvest. I also use black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS) as scratch in the evenings during the molt. Some years, the mature hens are molting as the up and coming pullets are coming into lay, so I will combine them into one coop and feed 1/2 layer ration plus 1/2 grower ration with free choice oyster shell. The molt requires a lot of dietary fat & protein to complete - the better you can supply their protein needs, the sooner they will get back to laying. Another good protein source is ricotta or cottage cheese - the non-fat ones have a higher protein content. Again, adding to the normal ration, not replacing it.

It might be worth a try to put some cayenne in the feed a couple weeks after the molt has finished. That is, when everybody has shiny new tail feathers fully grown in, as most molt from head to tail. There is a thread on BYC about adding cayenne to the feed for winter egg production, but I wouldn't try it until after the molt.

It is very hard to pay all that money for feed and not get any thing in return!! All our animals, even the cats and dogs have a purpose. Last winter, I decided to let them rest, but bought large bags of bird seed with a similar protein content as layer ration plus shell grit. It was a little cheaper, and I was still up to my eyeballs in eggs come spring.

I do deep litter, too. The feathers and any seed hulls all compost down very nicely right in the coop. Actually, >blushing< I didn't even clean out my coop this year, I just kept adding and adding to it. We got busy this fall. But I just throw down scratch or seeds in any matted areas & the girls keep it cleaned up & it still smells very nice in there. I will clean it out this spring, promise!!

All the best to you & your chooks!

Great info, thanks for the links too. I think I will go ahead and try the light trick soon. I may as well, since i know somehow or other I will have to replace my chickens at some point.

What year do you all think is time to start with new chicks? I don't have the setup to start new chicks unless they could take over the coop/run, and then I'd have to wait the four or five months for them to start laying, so I'm not sure how I even going to do that. I'm sure people could cram more chickens in to my coop/run but I like them to have enough room to be happy, and they seem to be. No fighting going on or anything like that, and they are pretty quiet except one really carries on when she lays or wants in the nesting box. Even tho I have two boxes, they all insist on using the same one.

Thanks for the good advice on protein during molt. I hadn't thought about it, but they have been getting protein in scraps. Maybe I should increase it tho, so I think I will do that as well. I have to go get more shavings anyway, now that I'm going to mix all the feathers in and add shavings. I'll have to try the cayenne too! Maybe the fox will get some in his nose.

mountainlover said:

I have six chickens ... This is their second winter. They recently stopped laying. Up until now we have gotten 4-6 eggs a day. Now nothing. They are molting and the coop and run have a layer of feathers on the ground.... Also, do you think they have stopped laying because of molting?...

Click to expand...

Any and all chickens that I am familiar with have a heavy molt their second winter. Molting hens lay few if any eggs. This is the reason many second year going on their third laying season hens get a surprise trip to the Campbell's Soup Factory. Even Back Yard Chicken keepers must ask their hens not what have you done for me, but what have you done for me LATELY?

Your hens aren't done laying forever, they're just taking a break for the winter. They'll start back up in the spring, once the days begin to lengthen out again. This is a normal cycle for a chicken. Each year they lay a little fewer eggs, but I've never had a bird quit completely. Even my 7 year old hatchery birds gave me 3ish eggs a week. That said, it's your management decision to feed non-producing birds over the winter or not. Most folks have a "rolling" flock, adding a few new chicks each spring. The chicks you start in Feb or March usually start laying in September, just before the older girls quit for the winter. That way you have a continuous supply of eggs. It's a very individual choice to keep older hens or not, you'll find folks on both sides of that coin and no one else can say what's going to be best for you.

Perfect donrae
Ak rain

mountainlover said:

What year do you all think is time to start with new chicks?

Click to expand...

At about 2-3 years you should consider hatching potential replacements if you want constant high production... Most chickens will lay for 5-7 years but production levels will usually start to drop after about that 2 or 3 year mark...