How do you reboot a chicken ?

[marcuscarr]

Announce the following...

"Ladies...this weekend we will be having company over. We are serving chicken or eggs, your choice."

The person that originally told me this found an egg laying in the middle of the coop the next day =]

 

[Scrambled Egg]

I have 12 hens that are about 9 months old and today was my first ever 12 egg day!! Whooo hoo!!! Course in NC our weather is just crazy, freezing cold with the chicken water iced over one week and us wearing short sleeves and shorts today so they don't need a re-boot they just lay all year long I guess. Really proud of the 12 egg day though becasue I have one handicapped chciken with a crooked neck and beak from a boney lump under her wing and I guess I thought she might not ever be a layer--wrong!! Now I have the problem of figuring out exactly what to do with all these eggs, lol!!!

 

[ole-crone]

I was down to 2 or 3 eggs from our 25 hens. I fed them some catfood - nothing.

However, I started throwing in a gallon of scratch every evening to the 50 hens (25 layers and 25 pullets) in the main coop and the eggs are starting to come. Today I gathered 18 - including one little pullet egg.

Considering all of the tricks we tried, I think the trick was the scratch.

One last note. I 'think' the pullet laying is the turken. It seems to me that in my last group, the turken was the first to lay too. Anyone else notice that they mature early compared to other breeds?

 

[EmsoffLambs]

How long have they been laying? Maybe the stress of the ice storm caused them to go into molt?

 

[Katy]

Maybe they're just due for their laying break...mine are just starting back up....hadn't had more than 3 or 4 eggs a week since october.

 

[Buckguy20]

Quote:
I thought about that. The ice storm was stresssful on them and me. No power for a week and then we had a lot of cold rain after the ice storm that left the pens a mess.
I do have some that look as if they are moulting.
Any idea why some are and others aren't. Also these are production reds so their color runs from dark red to a cinnamon color. It seems like it is the lighter colored ones that are starting to moult. The dark ones aren't. None of them are laying though.
My Orpingtons, Welsummers and all the others have quit as well.

 

[greenacreshens]

The chickens down here in Middle Georgia have done the same thing, and we didn't have an ice storm, but a cold snap.
Many of my friends are reporting the same thing......they were all laying fine and then just stopped completely about the middle of December and not one egg since. We have tried everything, supplements, scratch added, ect. but nothing has worked so far.
Many of the older people in the community say it's a sign of a hard winter coming...........I hope not!