Greetings everyone. I am one cup of black coffee and two pieces of toast into the day already!
Well, it's still hot here
You probably all get sick of hearing it, but 10 days over 95 degrees can be rather oppressive. The poor chooks are at their wits ends with it too, and some are even allowing me to give them a quick dunk in the wheelbarrow filled with water to help cool them off. They are tired and cranky and THREE of them are broody
again. Darn hot weather! Now my eggs are going to drop off again, and we were doing so well getting 6/8 two days ago.
Interestingly, I have figured out who is (and who isn't) laying in my flock now. One girl laid an egg two weeks ago but has not laid one since. This does not come as a great surprise to me, as she had not laid prior to that for about 3 months. Poor girl, she had constant issues - an impacted crop (followed by surgery), and then went into a full moult, blowing out all her feathers! I suspect it will be a fair while before she is laying properly again.
The other non-layer is one of three I adopted about 4 months ago. I was told that two of the three were a year old, and true to form they have been great layers. This last one I was told is "two years old", and was the last of the farm's RIR breeding stock. She had a broken toe (which had bent into a 'c' shape), that was an injury sustained as a chick. They sold her to me at half price because of this, but I suspect that (a) She is a heck of a lot older than two years old - let's try 5 or 6 instead, lol and (b) She does not lay eggs anymore. At all. Truly, she has not set foot in the nest box since she got here!
She is old and doddery and talks to herself as she walks around. She will not run for any reason, is super-fat, and needs to have a companion walk her to the rest of the flock if they all run off to free range, because she can't/won't find her own way! It's sweet actually, when I take her she talks to me too! She spends 90% of her day staring into the chick pen. Mind you, The Chicks are now 16 and 19 week old, lol. She was so happy when I started the integration process, and now spends ALL of her time with them, and none with the main flock!
So there you go. They are my two non-layers. They are safe as houses here, I won't be getting rid of them. The old, the sick and the lame all have a home here with me! Honestly, "Momma" is my favourite, because she has so much character. I suspect her days on Earth are quite limited now, but I take comfort in the fact that she is living out her final ones in peace here with us
- Krista