A couple of weeks ago, we had to cull the most wonderful rooster anybody could ever hope for, because his crossbeak problem (which he was born with) had gotten so bad that he was accidentally cutting the hens when he mounted them for sex.
On the same day, a local dairy farmer gave me two of the high quality production red "laying machines" she bought from a breeder in Pennsylvania. They were 18 weeks old by the time they arrived at my home, and are scheduled to begin laying any time now.
We have another rooster -- the son of the first roo -- and we figured it is his time to be Big Man in the Henhouse.
The Plan is to move this other roo into the henhouse. He had been living in a chicken tractor along with three hens of his own.
This roo has known all of his fathers hens through the fence for a year now, so with the exception of the two new arrivals, these birds are all familiar with each other. They just didn't live under one roof until now.
Well, we moved him and his hens into the big henhouse a week ago -- right after we recovered from a big snowstorm.
The new arrivals still sleep in a protective cage at night, but we began letting them out to play with the other birds at the same time that we brought the roo and his three hens into the existing flock. Our thought is that with adding six into the existing flock at one time - instead of just the two new arrivals - it would take the heat off of the two new birds somewhat.
Well, the group has been merged for close to a week now, and you can tell that they are still upset about all of these changes and regrouping.
At one point, I had to pull out three of the oldest -- and most aggressive -- hens, because they were causing so much trouble. I put them into the chicken tractor, and after that, the henhouse calmed down. There is still alot of petty conflict -- jockeying for position in the pecking order -- but at least the conflict is petty and nobody is in danger of being hurt or anything.
But what I am noticing is that our egg production is WAY DOWN since the merger.
Even with the cold of winter, we were getting about seven or eight eggs a day from the 13 hens in the group who are of prime laying age.
This has been an excessively cold and snowy winter for our Southern Chickens -- and we already noticed how the cold plus molting hens has reduced our average from 10 to 12 in the summer to 7 or 8 in the brutal winter. Yes, we do use lights in the henhouse to enhance winter production.
But in the six days since we have merged these two groups, we find the egg production down dramatically.
In fact, there have been two days this week when we only got one single egg.
Even the two older production reds -- with a long standing history of laying each and every day -- are not laying much anymore.
There was only one day that we got our usual seven winter eggs, then the next day, we only got one egg.
Are these Union Hens? Is this some kind of organized egg laying protest?
On the same day, a local dairy farmer gave me two of the high quality production red "laying machines" she bought from a breeder in Pennsylvania. They were 18 weeks old by the time they arrived at my home, and are scheduled to begin laying any time now.
We have another rooster -- the son of the first roo -- and we figured it is his time to be Big Man in the Henhouse.
The Plan is to move this other roo into the henhouse. He had been living in a chicken tractor along with three hens of his own.
This roo has known all of his fathers hens through the fence for a year now, so with the exception of the two new arrivals, these birds are all familiar with each other. They just didn't live under one roof until now.
Well, we moved him and his hens into the big henhouse a week ago -- right after we recovered from a big snowstorm.
The new arrivals still sleep in a protective cage at night, but we began letting them out to play with the other birds at the same time that we brought the roo and his three hens into the existing flock. Our thought is that with adding six into the existing flock at one time - instead of just the two new arrivals - it would take the heat off of the two new birds somewhat.
Well, the group has been merged for close to a week now, and you can tell that they are still upset about all of these changes and regrouping.
At one point, I had to pull out three of the oldest -- and most aggressive -- hens, because they were causing so much trouble. I put them into the chicken tractor, and after that, the henhouse calmed down. There is still alot of petty conflict -- jockeying for position in the pecking order -- but at least the conflict is petty and nobody is in danger of being hurt or anything.
But what I am noticing is that our egg production is WAY DOWN since the merger.
Even with the cold of winter, we were getting about seven or eight eggs a day from the 13 hens in the group who are of prime laying age.
This has been an excessively cold and snowy winter for our Southern Chickens -- and we already noticed how the cold plus molting hens has reduced our average from 10 to 12 in the summer to 7 or 8 in the brutal winter. Yes, we do use lights in the henhouse to enhance winter production.
But in the six days since we have merged these two groups, we find the egg production down dramatically.
In fact, there have been two days this week when we only got one single egg.
Even the two older production reds -- with a long standing history of laying each and every day -- are not laying much anymore.
There was only one day that we got our usual seven winter eggs, then the next day, we only got one egg.
Are these Union Hens? Is this some kind of organized egg laying protest?
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