- Jan 1, 2011
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I know it sounds crass, but we have a small backyard flock for the eggs first and foremost. I really love our birds but we need to keep in fresh layers to keep up egg production. Our older girls (5 of them) were spring chicks we got 2 1/2 years ago. The two other girls we got last fall.
Between the 7 of them we rarely got more than 4 eggs a day in the summer and heading into winter I'm lucky to find 2 in the nest, and soon it will be 0. It's expensive to feed them through the winter (we pay $18/bag for non-GMO corn and soy free feed) and they can't free range most days as we are in a close neighborhood. I never intended to keep birds as pets and fully anticipated culling the older girls at some point.
Would you cull a few birds in order to get some younger birds in, kind of on a three year rotation, I'm thinking. If so, how do you decide which ones? I really don't know which girls are laying right now, but I do know that only 4 are, and it's intermittent. (3 older and the Wellsummer, the Cuckoo is molting)
(I have 2 BO, 1 BR, 2 EE that are the older girls. 1 Wellsummer, 1 Cuckoo Maran are the younger girls.) Next time around I will buy more reliably productive breeds. Live and learn.)
A great feed store here brings in fall chicks and his last order is Monday so I have to decide this week.
Thoughts?
Between the 7 of them we rarely got more than 4 eggs a day in the summer and heading into winter I'm lucky to find 2 in the nest, and soon it will be 0. It's expensive to feed them through the winter (we pay $18/bag for non-GMO corn and soy free feed) and they can't free range most days as we are in a close neighborhood. I never intended to keep birds as pets and fully anticipated culling the older girls at some point.
Would you cull a few birds in order to get some younger birds in, kind of on a three year rotation, I'm thinking. If so, how do you decide which ones? I really don't know which girls are laying right now, but I do know that only 4 are, and it's intermittent. (3 older and the Wellsummer, the Cuckoo is molting)
(I have 2 BO, 1 BR, 2 EE that are the older girls. 1 Wellsummer, 1 Cuckoo Maran are the younger girls.) Next time around I will buy more reliably productive breeds. Live and learn.)
A great feed store here brings in fall chicks and his last order is Monday so I have to decide this week.
Thoughts?