Recent content by HobbitWife

Hi Everyone, Thank you for your feedback. We eventually decided not to mix our own feed. For anyone reading this in the future, who may be in search of a budget- friendly solution, here's what is working for us now: we give them a 50/50 mix of Scratch and Peck brand layer feed and Big Sky...

Welcome to BYC!

Congratulations on your new chickens! Welcome to BYC. :)

I would agree. In my limited experience, it sounds like she's just going broody. I've also noticed that sometimes my hens will sit in the nesting box days before they start laying for the spring. It sounds like your lady has been laying though. Is that so?

Or, perhaps, does anyone know of an organic, soy-free feed that is whole grain and cheaper than Scratch and Peck?

Ok, thank you all for your advice. Does anyone know of a better recipe?

Oh! Totally forgot to mention--we will offer oyster shells as free choice. They also free range all day.

Update: hooray! We have eggs! Not very many right now--about 3 every 3 days or so, but some!

Hi everyone! We're about to transition our flock of laying hens (and one pullet) to a homemade mix of grains/seeds, etc. I found this recipe one BYC ages ago (will link the original post if I can find it,) and just wanted to run it by some more experienced chicken keepers: 12 cups of whole...

Did you check their run/the coop, etc, for predators? We had a raccoon hide in the coop at dusk once, and one of our hens jumped on the garage roof to escape!

Hi, Joe! Glad to know you. Welcome to BYC.

Lol! Oh, how I love puns... :) We started the lighting around the beginning of November. It wasn't long after we realized we weren't getting any eggs. Regarding their ages: I'm not entirely sure, but yes, 18 months sounds about right. We bought them fully grown from a friend. Thank you both for...

Thank you, everyone!

Thank you so much for your replies--sorry it took me so long to respond! Unfortunately, we lost her--the other hens bullied her, and we think they may have driven her away from food to the point at which she ate something poisonous. :(

Hi Everyone! Hope you're all doing well. Our tiny flock (5 at the time) mostly stopped laying around Halloween. We had one hen who was still laying well, but everyone else pretty much stopped. We had a bit of a "perfect storm" of factors, so I wasn't surprised: 1. No supplemental lighting. We...