California - Northern

[ronott1]

OH Im so sorry The boys are harder to loose you get so attached if they stay. Did he get ahold of something he should not have in the run?
I like them too! But then, my issue is not selling an egg for a quarter and making a profit. I like to tell people how long these Marans lay when they buy them. It is another reason to get a heritage chicken, they lay for years. It is an old trying to pay the bills thing.. Being a farmer is tough, but we are not farmers. ID MUCH rather have 3 eggs a week from a hen I kow then take the chances a chick is going to survive to lay sometime in the future.

The Flock we had when I was growing up were a good 5 to 10 years old and still laying eggs. They were Hatchery Barred Rocks and Rhode Island reds.

That was back in the late 1960s to 70s though....

 

[Chickengirl1304]

The Flock we had when I was growing up were a good 5 to 10 years old and still laying eggs. They were Hatchery Barred Rocks and Rhode Island reds.

That was back in the late 1960s to 70s though....

Ya I'm sure back then hatchery stock was better I have 24 hatchery girls from my originals and I only get 7-10 eggs a day but I just love them!

 

[ronott1]

Ya I'm sure back then hatchery stock was better

I have 24 hatchery girls from my originals and I only get 7-10 eggs a day but I just love them!

They are slowing down now. Lights need to be turned on for a couple of hours each day soon and they will start laying again after they molt.

I may or may not use lights this winter. I am undecided.

 

[chrissyr]

I am getting frustrated. I was on the Home page and there was a post about putting old hens into a pen to see if they were still laying eggs. The person wants to cull them right now if they are not laying.

His old hens are two years old...another person said that they needed to cull these hens that do not lay eggs in the Fall or they would be feeding non layers all winter long.

What a waste of good hens.

Microwave generation. Instead of figuring why they aren't laying, probably molting, they can't handle it. I have some 4/5 year olds Laying quite well still. 2 years is nothing!!

 

[OR4-hmom]

They are slowing down now. Lights need to be turned on for a couple of hours each day soon and they will start laying again after they molt.

I may or may not use lights this winter. I am undecided.

I haven't decided on lights either. As long as I get enough eggs for us and the neighbors I'm good. Since I've got some pullets that just started they are young and dumb enough to probably carry through without the lights.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

They are slowing down now. Lights need to be turned on for a couple of hours each day soon and they will start laying again after they molt.

I may or may not use lights this winter. I am undecided.

I started the lights a few weeks ago. They're looking pretty again so hopefully they're done with their molt. My orps are slowing down with the feather loss. I can't tell by looking at them because they're so fluffy but the amount of feathers on the ground and in the coop is ridicules!! Seeing less and less though. First egg here we come!! I hope. Lol

 

[PetRock]

One of the Pita Pinta boys wanted to come out and play. He flew up to the side of the Hutch in the Garage, so I took him outside. He is 14 weeks old. They have changed so much!

What a handsome hunk! My PP's are 4 weeks old now. I really need to take them outside to play and to take some pics of them.

 

[ronott1]

What a handsome hunk! My PP's are 4 weeks old now. I really need to take them outside to play and to take some pics of them.

yes, please do.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

I have 2 isbar chicks! And still waiting on the others! Do they come in blue/black/splash? One is very light and one is blue and are they auto sexing like the CCLs? I thought I heard they were

 

[PetRock]

What an exhausting day! DH and I helped process 39 cockerels/roos at the farm today. It took us from 9:30 to 2:30 because we only had 5 adults, and 4 teenagers doing the work. My job this time around was cleaning out the innards. It wasn't too bad because by the time I got them they were mostly plucked so I didn't know which bird was which. The hard part was choosing which birds went to death row and which were wormed then released back into the field. We narrowed our Silver Penciled Plymouth Rock roos down from 4 to 1 and our Langshan roos down from 8 to 4. One had a crooked keel that I didn't notice until we saw the plucked bird. It was interesting to see.

We rushed home, showered, and headed to Chuck E Cheese for our grandson's 5th birthday party. What a way to end our busy day! My DH is crashed on the couch!