-22F last night and got 9 eggs from 10 hens today!

[ValerieJ]

I'll keep that in mind next year. Dear Wife and I don't need 9 eggs per day, so it won't hurt much to be down in the count next year. I am planning on "retiring" my girls after 2 or 3 years, but I have not quite decided how to do that yet. Dear Wife is already looking at the more plump girls and planning ahead. I am leaning on letting them "free range" their last years, and maybe build a separate setup for them apart from my "production" hens. Currently I have all my first year hens under a protected run and Fort Knox coop. But I suppose a less secure, and more free range, setup could be built for retirement of the older hens.

Do you have many predators where you are? I think older hens who have always been protected may become prey the first day of free ranging. I would give them a humane death and eat them myself before I put them out for the raccoons, eagles and coyotes in my area.

 

[ValerieJ]

I have learned to make eggs a number of ways for breakfast. I also make some pretty good custard for dessert. Recently I started pickling eggs which to the surprise of Dear Wife and myself are very good with salads and/or as a relish with a meal. I'm slowly learning other ways to use eggs, but baking skills is something I never did growing up.

Like most boys my age, I was in shop class while the girls took Home Economics. At my age, I truly wish boys were given the chance to take cooking classes back in the day. But we were funneled into gender expected classes when I was growing up. Looking back, I wish we had been exposed to more things than construction, welding, plumbing, or running electric wire. All good skills, but I really feel that cooking skills would have served me well in life. Thank goodness for YouTube videos which help even old guys like me.

You can learn to cook now. Any sort of recipe you want to try is online, and any technique you don't know can be learned by watching a YouTube video. When I stopped working, I took an interest in cooking new and interesting foods. It has been a truly fun adventure, and we get really good food!

 

[ValerieJ]

My girls have stopped laying. Do you who have chickens still laying provide light?

I don't.

 

[ValerieJ]

That really was a disservice society forced on young people for far to many years.

I remember seeing all the things made by the "shop class boys" and thinking it was unfair we were excluded.

I am sure there were boys in there wishing they were allowed to learn basic cooking and sewing.

I think we could have taken the other class, but never asked. My mom took metal class in high school. She was born in the 30's.

 

[gtaus]

My girls have stopped laying. Do you who have chickens still laying provide light?

I don't use any artificial light for my girls. But I still get about 6 eggs per day on average.

 

[gtaus]

Do you have many predators where you are? I think older hens who have always been protected may become prey the first day of free ranging. I would give them a humane death and eat them myself before I put them out for the raccoons, eagles and coyotes in my area.

Most of my chickens are dual purpose, so they could be harvested for the table, I guess. I just know one lady who "retires" her older hens by letting them free range on her property and provides them food and shelter. But they are no longer in a very secure chicken run and she does not expect them to produce many eggs.

However, as you mentioned, maybe that's not a good option for either the chickens, or me. I have wondered that if I let older hens free range that it would attract more predators into my area.

A number of people have posted that their hens still lay eggs after many years, so maybe I'll just wait and see how it goes. I currently have 10 hens and Dear Wife and I don't need very many eggs to meet our needs. We are giving away more eggs than we eat. So maybe we would have a better balance with only 2 or 3 eggs per day when the flock gets older.

 

[hayley3]

Last year at this same time, my girls were laying every day and I was giving eggs away because I had so many. This year they were molting in November! They are just now starting to look normal again. I don't remember ever having to buy this many eggs at the store either. Store eggs are awful...LOL Mine are under a bit of stress due to moving but the really hot weather and the sudden turn downward into the 20's must have had some effect on their cycle.

 

[NHMountainMan]

You can learn to cook now. Any sort of recipe you want to try is online, and any technique you don't know can be learned by watching a YouTube video. When I stopped working, I took an interest in cooking new and interesting foods. It has been a truly fun adventure, and we get really good food!

You're 100% correct.
I became a single dad 20 something years ago. Other than campfires and pancakes, I had never cooked and my former wife had been a great cook. I was determined that my kids were not going to miss their mom's cooking - It took a little while, but before long, with help from lots of cook books, I'd learned, and found a new passion. I still struggle with bread making and making a good pie crust.
You're right about YouTube - this year - watched a 20 minute pie crust video by king Arthur flour, and bingo- first Thanksgiving that I was proud of my pies.

 

[aart]

I don't.

Are your birds laying....pullets(under a year old) or hens(over a year old)?

I don't use any artificial light for my girls. But I still get about 6 eggs per day on average.

I know you have pullets, that started laying before days got too short.

 

[Acre4Me]

My girls have stopped laying. Do you who have chickens still laying provide light?

We do have light in our coop. It is on a timer and comes on in the early morning hours, and turns off when sun is fully risen. Our goal is to provide light for approx 14 hours a day (artificial combined with natural light) This year we have Feb, April and July hatched pullets. I don't think any July hatched pullets have begun to lay yet. All or most of the April hatched are laying, and all Feb hatch are laying. We also have hens that are not quite 2 years old. Most of them have/are molting so no eggs from them. We have heritage types, so they are not heavy layers - more like 4-6/week tops.

It will be interesting to see what Jan/Feb 2020 bring in terms of laying bc we had supplemental light last winter and had all pullets, although they turned 1yo end of Feb 2019, with some deciding to molt in January 2019 at age 11 months . However, last winter it was sooooo very overcast for a long time that I think this may have impacted their laying as many stopped laying around late Jan/Feb 2019. I think our supplemental light was not on enough hours of the day, as we were just trying to add on to the natural light, but the natural light seemed nearly nonexistent for a period of time (hugely overcast). Also, interesting to note that we didn't have supplemental light until October 2018 when we had to have the barn re-wired (#stupidmicewithsharpteethlivinginwalls), so turned on the supplemental light after some of the pullets had slowed way down in production...within a couple of weeks we were getting lots of eggs again.

Here is our set up for electric in the coop. Installed by the electrician who re-wired the barn, as the coop sits about 2 feet behind the barn.