Hi All, we are newbies the proud owners of Itty Bitty and his Herum

[curt and katie]

Let us introduce our girls and our only 1 Roo we hope. The ladies and gentleman were born May 1st 2012 and are now are laying a few eggs, success. Sad news is that we started with a wonderful 12 and Monday the neighbors dog dug under her fence and stole one of my hens. Heartbroken!!, but the ladies and gentleman seem to be fine moving forward. They are Road Island Reds and the most beatiful and friendly girls and boy we have ever owned.


(So Itty Bitty was the tiniest and we were afraid he was never going to make it through the first month).
We are from Maine, and not looking forward to the cold winter to come. Any suggestions on keeping egg production up an our little family cozy would be greatly welcome. Looking forward to meeting others who love there chicks as much as we do.

 

[jbirds2012]

nice set up

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Hi and from Ohio. So glad to have you aboard. So sorry for your loss. You might need to add some wire on the bottom of the pen and bury it so nothing can dig under. Since the days are getting shorter, many folks will add a light on a timer to come on earlier in the moring to supplement the loss of daylight to help keep up with the egg production.

 

[Kevin565]

 

[Red Barn Farms]

Hello from 'The Rolling Hills" of Kentucky. Well, breed type certainly plays a key roll in the amount of eggs you get. Chickens lay best when they are receiving around 15-16 hours of daylight. In the winter months you do have the option of providing supplemental lighting which can be controlled by means of a timer. That will help in solving the waning sunlight of day. You may use the same lamp that is used when brooding young chicks but omitting the red heat bulb. Just plug the lamp to a timer and have it set to come on early enough in the a.m to make up the total of 16 hours daylight. Make sure the lamp is well secured with no chance of it falling to the ground or a chicken knocking it down.

 

[BrendaJ]

Hello from Oregon & welcome to BYC . So sorry for your loss. We lost 1 of our girls to a dog as well.
Place a light inside your coop & it will help with egg production.

 

[sumi]

Hello and welcome to BYC

Sorry to hear about your loss

 

[PFSfarmer]

There is great info here....

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, curt and katie, and

! Happy you joined our flock! Looks like a great coop and run set up you have there! Good luck to you!

 

[weimarmama]

& from Alabama. Glad you joined us.