tweetzone86
Songster
I'm sure this sounds impatient, but I am wondering...this flock has had some behavior issues with feather-picking (due to boredom I think, and the chickens are, well, too chicken to go out in the snow which puts 19 birds into a 96 sq foot shed/coop. Door open all day, til we can cut out a little chicken door which will hopefully be soon). That being said, snow melted so they're venturing out a little more...but it's supposed to be a snowy winter for us this year.
I feed them 20% Purina Flock Raiser, and oyster shell on the side (side note- will the oyster shell hurt my roo? He's pecking at it too).
When will they start laying? Or is the issue that it's autumn, and the low light will stop laying before it even starts? My RIR flock (first one- have been rehomed to chicken retirement home since their egg production dropped and it wasn't economical to keep them anymore) laid all through their first winter, but we had set up a light on a timer. We plan on hooking something up for that this weekend on our new property.
Does anyone know if these June-hatched breeds will lay their first autumn without light (just out of curiosity) or will they wait til spring? Also, as an aside- how do I stop the dummies from picking each other's tail feathers out?! It's driving me nuts! My first flock got along SO well with each other, but these ones, while fine to us humans, seem to irritate each other, despite the fact that they were all raised together from the same hatch day (hatchery chicks). Is this possibly due to their breeds? I would have thought RIR to be bossier but the last ones were so nice, which is why it made me sad to get rid of them- but I had to move new flock into their coop.
I feed them 20% Purina Flock Raiser, and oyster shell on the side (side note- will the oyster shell hurt my roo? He's pecking at it too).
When will they start laying? Or is the issue that it's autumn, and the low light will stop laying before it even starts? My RIR flock (first one- have been rehomed to chicken retirement home since their egg production dropped and it wasn't economical to keep them anymore) laid all through their first winter, but we had set up a light on a timer. We plan on hooking something up for that this weekend on our new property.
Does anyone know if these June-hatched breeds will lay their first autumn without light (just out of curiosity) or will they wait til spring? Also, as an aside- how do I stop the dummies from picking each other's tail feathers out?! It's driving me nuts! My first flock got along SO well with each other, but these ones, while fine to us humans, seem to irritate each other, despite the fact that they were all raised together from the same hatch day (hatchery chicks). Is this possibly due to their breeds? I would have thought RIR to be bossier but the last ones were so nice, which is why it made me sad to get rid of them- but I had to move new flock into their coop.