Convince my husband the hens are not past their expiry date!

[Drewnkat]

Thanks, I appreciate the support and camaraderie of this board.

We got two more large eggs this morning from the adult hens, and five from the young ones. I'm kinda hoping in a few weeks we end up with so many eggs, hubby is begging me to do something to clear out space in the fridge!

 

[aart]

Well told rant story, I enjoyed it.
Glad the cockerels are harvested <thumbsup>!
...and that you are getting eggs again.

 

[toddo]

Mine are finishing up their molting, I haven't had an egg in three weeks, he has to be patient.

 

[Beekissed]

The way I view the lack of full egg production in the few winter months it happens is this....I've got many jars of canned chicken from that same flock sitting on my shelf and I have soup all winter long from that. I am still getting "production" and food from that flock all winter long in the form of meat. If a flock is worked properly in this manner where one eats extra cockerels and nonlaying hens, then there is never a time when the flock is not "producing".

Time for folks to get a grip on this whole no eggs in the winter time lament and realize that food is happening, even when those eggs are not showing up in the nest.

If one is REALLY savvy, they are also harvesting all that poop and using it to grow even MORE food come spring.

There really is no down side to chickens....pest consumption, lawn and garden fertilization, eggs in season, meat in season, feathers for bedding, scraps and bones for dog food, recycling of kitchen scraps into more food, beauty and interesting life cycles, learning about a species, and good use of the land.

 

[junebuggena]

The way I view the lack of full egg production in the few winter months it happens is this....I've got many jars of canned chicken from that same flock sitting on my shelf and I have soup all winter long from that. I am still getting "production" and food from that flock all winter long in the form of meat. If a flock is worked properly in this manner where one eats extra cockerels and nonlaying hens, then there is never a time when the flock is not "producing".

Time for folks to get a grip on this whole no eggs in the winter time lament and realize that food is happening, even when those eggs are not showing up in the nest.

If one is REALLY savvy, they are also harvesting all that poop and using it to grow even MORE food come spring.

There really is no down side to chickens....pest consumption, lawn and garden fertilization, eggs in season, meat in season, feathers for bedding, scraps and bones for dog food, recycling of kitchen scraps into more food, beauty and interesting life cycles, learning about a species, and good use of the land.

x2
Even older hens that might not the greatest layers any still contribute. They help teach the younger birds, and a good broody is definitely worth keeping around.

 

[aart]

I rotate my flock population so I have pullets laying every winter and harvest meat every spring and fall.

 

[samantha LW]

Go get your husband. Bring him here, and sit him down. Tell him this message is for him and he needs to read it carefully:


Here it is:


SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO YOUR WIFE!

Whew....I was starting to think that I must be a really mean wife!I could not imagine my husband threatening something that made me happy and meaning it. I had a Great Dane that used to sneak up behind him and bite him, he threatened the dog but I knew he would never hurt it because I loved it. This is like the third post I have read today about husbands threatening the chickens and all I could think was if mine even tried he would be very sorry very quickly. I am going to go home and hug that man.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Hens go through their first full or adult molt at about 1 to 1 1/2 years old. Their next molt will be more difficult on them than this first molt was. And all marital bickering aside, your hens will never again lay as well as they did during their first season but they are not washed up.... yet.

What strains or breeds of hens do you have? The Mediterranean type chickens are almost always the superior laying hen than the big heavy so called "duel purpose breeds.