Chickenstock fiesta yardsale August 21

[Chickie'sMoma]

my favs seem to be the best layers at the moment! my crazy, mix girl Raven has been in full production too! most of the cochins have just started laying the last few months, so i am not too surprised that a couple want to go broody right now, many are under a year old at the moment.

 

[howardacres]

Quote:
Darleen, do you light them? I give extra light to my laying flock to keep them laying in the short winter days. My coop is 80 sq ft, and i use a 60 watt equivalent CFL bulb set on a timer---it comes on at 5 am, and goes off around 7:30 am, then it comes on again around 4 pm and goes off at 7 pm. It extends their day to 14 hrs of light---my raising chickens handbook says to do this if you want them to lay in the short winter days. It worked out great last winter, we had eggs all winter! This winter, i think it will help again. Of course, most of my girls are going through a hard molt right now, so they stopped laying for that. Most of my hens are between 18 and 20 months old---the oldest ones are starting to lay again, and the younger ones are stopping for their molt. If you do light your hens, you really should use a timer, becasue if you forget to turn the lights on at the right time, it can stop them laying---according to my chicken book. Or if the power goes out, and they don't get lighted, they can stop laying. I have a generator for power outages---got a great deal a couple years ago, and it has been totally worth it. Used it a couple of times---the last time we could have lost our entire fish tank if we didn't have the generator!

I am NOT lighting the Seramas in the chicken tractor, and after they hatched babies at the end of September, i thought they would not lay again this winter. i was actually surprised that they started laying the end of October and they are hatching babies now! we'll see what they do the rest of the winter, but i won't light them.

 

[darbella]

Quote:
Darleen, do you light them? I give extra light to my laying flock to keep them laying in the short winter days. My coop is 80 sq ft, and i use a 60 watt equivalent CFL bulb set on a timer---it comes on at 5 am, and goes off around 7:30 am, then it comes on again around 4 pm and goes off at 7 pm. It extends their day to 14 hrs of light---my raising chickens handbook says to do this if you want them to lay in the short winter days. It worked out great last winter, we had eggs all winter! This winter, i think it will help again. Of course, most of my girls are going through a hard molt right now, so they stopped laying for that. Most of my hens are between 18 and 20 months old---the oldest ones are starting to lay again, and the younger ones are stopping for their molt. If you do light your hens, you really should use a timer, becasue if you forget to turn the lights on at the right time, it can stop them laying---according to my chicken book. Or if the power goes out, and they don't get lighted, they can stop laying. I have a generator for power outages---got a great deal a couple years ago, and it has been totally worth it. Used it a couple of times---the last time we could have lost our entire fish tank if we didn't have the generator!

I am NOT lighting the Seramas in the chicken tractor, and after they hatched babies at the end of September, i thought they would not lay again this winter. i was actually surprised that they started laying the end of October and they are hatching babies now! we'll see what they do the rest of the winter, but i won't light them.

No, I dont have any light in there other than the light of day! LOL...I am gonna have a hard time convincing the husband to let me use electricity to put in a low watt heat bulb, let alone extending the daylight to make more bird to keep! LOL

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

i've been using commercial grade x-mas lights in my coop! they use less power than the cheap lights that are the same length you can get at most stores. you can also string up to 6 sets vs the 3 for the cheap lights. i got mine at the local ACE hardware a few years ago and they are still working! they still take the usual bulbs you can buy at the store too!

eta: and they don't give off much heat to the touch!

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

just curious if anyone may have an EE hen/pullet or a Marans hen/pullet they would be willing to sell? i am in need of a couple lf ladies to add to my flock for some large boys that need mates!

 

[howardacres]

Quote:
Darleen, do you light them? I give extra light to my laying flock to keep them laying in the short winter days. My coop is 80 sq ft, and i use a 60 watt equivalent CFL bulb set on a timer---it comes on at 5 am, and goes off around 7:30 am, then it comes on again around 4 pm and goes off at 7 pm. It extends their day to 14 hrs of light---my raising chickens handbook says to do this if you want them to lay in the short winter days. It worked out great last winter, we had eggs all winter! This winter, i think it will help again. Of course, most of my girls are going through a hard molt right now, so they stopped laying for that. Most of my hens are between 18 and 20 months old---the oldest ones are starting to lay again, and the younger ones are stopping for their molt. If you do light your hens, you really should use a timer, becasue if you forget to turn the lights on at the right time, it can stop them laying---according to my chicken book. Or if the power goes out, and they don't get lighted, they can stop laying. I have a generator for power outages---got a great deal a couple years ago, and it has been totally worth it. Used it a couple of times---the last time we could have lost our entire fish tank if we didn't have the generator!

I am NOT lighting the Seramas in the chicken tractor, and after they hatched babies at the end of September, i thought they would not lay again this winter. i was actually surprised that they started laying the end of October and they are hatching babies now! we'll see what they do the rest of the winter, but i won't light them.

No, I dont have any light in there other than the light of day! LOL...I am gonna have a hard time convincing the husband to let me use electricity to put in a low watt heat bulb, let alone extending the daylight to make more bird to keep! LOL

LOL! Well, i only light my LF layers, and i sell extra eggs to friends, enough to help with feed costs. it's worth it to me to have the eggs, and the CFL's don't use much energy---i think it's an 13 watt bulb to get the equivalent of 60 watts incandescent bulb. I'm lighting my ducks similarly....they are laying like gang-busters! We usually get 8 eggs per day from 10 female ducks, and just the other day i got 10 eggs from the 10 ducks! My fridge is so full of duck eggs---i'm not going to hatch any ducklings till spring.

My book says if you don't light them, they will take a break from laying in the winter. I understand that some people want the eggs, and some people think it's best to let the birds do things naturally, and some people think like your hubby. hee-hee!!

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

what type of ducks you have? maybe you could sell some of their eggs for hatching this time of year!

 

[shay20]

Chickie'sMoma :

just curious if anyone may have an EE hen/pullet or a Marans hen/pullet they would be willing to sell? i am in need of a couple lf ladies to add to my flock for some large boys that need mates!

I still have the maran hen availible.​

 

[howardacres]

Chickie'sMoma :

what type of ducks you have? maybe you could sell some of their eggs for hatching this time of year!

Why, are you looking for some?

I have a mixed flock, but it includes a pair of Buffs and a pair of khaki campbells. So a few eggs could be pure of those---if i can figure out which egg was laid by which girl, and which drake bred her---wait, i won't know until i separate them out into separate breeding pens in the spring! The other eggs would definitely be mixed, whatever the female is crossed with either the Buff or Khaki drake. Other females include Blue Swedish, splash blue swedish, Cayuga, and a few mixed females. I do plan to separate the two pure pairs for breeding in the spring, but not till Feb/March.​

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

Quote:
I still have the maran hen availible.

wonderful! would you be available this weekend if i took a trip down to get her from you? and how much were you asking?

o, and the ducks, i was just curious since i am looking for bantam duckies to eventually add to my flock. though i know raising ducklings this time of year would not be fun in the house!