Serious Moulting

[aoxa]

So moulting is a sign of good health? I know putting a light in the coop will help with laying in the winter, but I was planning to let them lay natural. I have a chicken tractor so putting a light up isn't really feasible. If I have them laying natually do you then end up with the chicken taking more time "off" than laying time? If so I am going to have to put up a light. I HATE buying eggs at the store when my hens are sitting out in the coop doing NOTHING!

Moulting is not a sign of good health. Quick molting probably is. Long molting - not a good sign.

I wouldn't add a light. I have strong feelings about lighting a chicken coop. If they are in their first year and just started laying, but have stopped - there is something going on. They should lay through their first winter. Not as much as spring - but there should be enough to keep you going.

My Red Sex Links have just started laying and my egg production is very high without lighting.

 

[gg706]

They are Wyandottes so not really an egg production bird. They started laying and stopped a month ago and started moulting.

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

Quote: My hens were laying through their hard molt. I knew that was because of good nutrition, they were getting enough calcium & protein to grow in feathers and lay.

I don't want to sound snappy at all... but I wasn't really meaning that all molts were signs of good health, sorry I didn't put that in. When one of my hens was chased by a bobcat she went through a hard molt (She had just finished one too). She had runny poops for several days and was stunned for several hours.

 

[gg706]

Mine have access to layer feed 24/7. They free range all day. They do not eat much of the layer feed as they prefer ranging all day. Not sure what the problem could be, they act happy and healthy. Should I worm them?

 

[aoxa]

My hens were laying through their hard molt. I knew that was because of good nutrition, they were getting enough calcium & protein to grow in feathers and lay.

I don't want to sound snappy at all... but I wasn't really meaning that all molts were signs of good health, sorry I didn't put that in. When one of my hens was chased by a bobcat she went through a hard molt (She had just finished one too). She had runny poops for several days and was stunned for several hours.

Laying through their hard molt is a good sign. I didn't mean to say your hens weren't healthy, just that molting is not typically a sign of good health. Recovering quickly from a molt is. Laying through a molt? What winners! I have only one that has laid through a hard molt. She's a gem!

 

[gg706]

I guess I will keep on eye on them. Hopefully they are straightened back out soon and will return to laying again with no problems. Funny my sister had some feral chickens in a barn. Just threw them some horse feed here and there. No locking them up at night, worming, supplementing, feeding, culling etc. Those chickens grew, reproduced, survived quite easily on their own. She ended up trapping most of them and sent them to a farm to live as they were multiplying and she decided she did not want them around anymore.
And I get all bent out of shape about my hens moulting!

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

So moulting is a sign of good health? I know putting a light in the coop will help with laying in the winter, but I was planning to let them lay natural. I have a chicken tractor so putting a light up isn't really feasible. If I have them laying natually do you then end up with the chicken taking more time "off" than laying time? If so I am going to have to put up a light. I HATE buying eggs at the store when my hens are sitting out in the coop doing NOTHING!

If you have them laying naturally, no light, then definitely they will take a lot more time off this winter. It won't be more time off than laying time, but it will mean a long period in the winter with you buying eggs in the store.

How long do you plan to keep these hens? Mine are here three years and then gone (except for really great hens that I keep for breeding and roosters that I like) so I have no vested interest in their laying capacity in years 4-?. I keep the lights off in the fall until everyone moults hard, then up the protein and kick the lights on increasing light every few days until we're at 14 hours of light a day. They start right up laying again and lay all through the winter for me. Right now I'm snowed in, but I am getting 40+ eggs a day from 50 hens. Before I turned on the lights mid-November I was getting TWO eggs/day for 50+ hens.

This is definitely a philosophical thing to figure out for yourself. Me, I am buying hatchery birds that are here for egg production. I treat them well, and they are much happier than caged birds, but the bottom line is that I buy feed so I can sell eggs and birds that aren't laying don't get to stick around. I do not believe that it hurts the birds to lay though the winter, and I do what I can to encourage that. Some folks believe that the hen will die sooner or lay fewer eggs as an aged bird, and I have no opinion on that since I don't have very many birds that are older than three years old--and no real way to know exactly what they're laying, anyway. If I were breeding endangered breed heritage birds and keeping them until natural death, maybe I'd change my mind and not give them light in the winter, but I doubt it. A hen has many times more eggs inside her than she can possibly lay in a lifetime, whether she lays through the winter or not.

In the end, it's totally up to you.

 

[gg706]

I do not have any chickens that are really special.....with the exception of an all black Araucana hen that is pretty nice looking. The rest may as well be hatchery birds. I do not sell any eggs, they are just for our family's use. That being said, I do have them for pets a little bit but mostly for a food source. They get well taken care of, I get eggs in return...meat someday if I can get up the courage! So my chickens living the life, and me buying eggs at the store is not working for me. I think a new bigger coop with a light is probably in order sooner than later. Thank You for the insight.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

I do not have any chickens that are really special.....with the exception of an all black Araucana hen that is pretty nice looking. The rest may as well be hatchery birds. I do not sell any eggs, they are just for our family's use. That being said, I do have them for pets a little bit but mostly for a food source. They get well taken care of, I get eggs in return...meat someday if I can get up the courage! So my chickens living the life, and me buying eggs at the store is not working for me. I think a new bigger coop with a light is probably in order sooner than later. Thank You for the insight.

If you get up the courage to do meat--it's really tasty. We had some Cornish X babies and I didn't feel bad about butchering them--they were really gross. Baby layer hens are like little teeny adorable birds. Baby meat birds are big and gross and smelly and lay in their food dish and eat all the time even when they could be free ranging. Also, you pick them up and they are made of meat. There's no other way to describe it. I was thrilled when they reached 8 weeks and we butchered them, but I feel bad when I butcher layer hens. Now, I did decide that I hate the butchering and I'll never do it again on a large scale, but those Cornish X were some of the tastiest chicken I've ever eaten.

I wonder if there's a way to rig up a light on a 12-volt battery for your chicken tractor? It only needs to be on from 4am to around 8am. I found this online, but don't know if it will work or not: http://www.ehow.com/how_4828016_wire-volt-light-hen-house.html

 

[gg706]

Interesting, never thought about using a battery. I need to go out and do some looking and see if the light would be far enough away from chickens to not cause a problem. My tractor has a fairly low ceiling height. I was thinking about building a permenant coop as the free ranging is working very well for me. So I do not move the coop often anyway. But I was hoping to wait another year or so.....the battery idea would be a great temporary solution. I wish I could get up the courage to raise up some meat birds and butcher a couple of times a year. I really enjoy gardening and providing clean healthy food for my family. Why did you decide to stop? Was your cost more than the store bought? For some reason I would feel better about butchering cornish because they are going that route anyway.....butchering dual purpose seems like it would be more sustainable and cost effective however. What do you do with your hens after 3 years if you do not butcher?