Hey friends,
Our flock has rather suddenly halved egg production. I'm trying to figure out if it's shorter daylight hours, or the fright they had this weekend.
We have a five year old buff orpington Lucia. She has full size eggs and is getting ready to molt, so her stopping laying fast would be normal as she looks very rumpled. Her eggs are the only full size ones, so it's easy to tell. We have 8 new orplets in chocolate and lavender. They all lay 3/4 size eggs still. The past three days, we have dropped from 5-8 eggs a day to 3-4 eggs a day. We have lots of sun (though obviously days are shortening), daytime temperatures around 80F with nights cooling into the 40F's.
Ever since we moved here I have struggled the a lazy attitude from neighbors near and far about dogs not wandering. It's not legal, but they don't care. I get dogs from a long way away on our property, and as people don't answer strange calls, they get texts that start with "I have your dog". Multiple of my immediate neighbors are related, so I try to tread carefully. We may not socialize, but it's good to be able to be on good terms with your neighbors. Example, when their well broke a few years ago, we ran a long host with an on/off valve on the end to the property line so they could all fill buckets for toilet filling etc at the three houses until their well could be fixed. Stuff that's considerate. Unfortunately they also have the "what's the big deal" attitude about dogs coming over here. Thankfully their current dogs were now trained or contained for the most part.
Neighbor behind us has a roommate that got a new dog this weekend. That dog was at our house both days. It upset our dog by peeing everywhere, growled at me, pissed in what was my culinary herb garden and harassed our chickens. Our birds were terrified. I've never seen them so upset. They exploded in panic if I moved too fast while I was in trying to calm them. I called the neighbor, who listened politely when I said the dog was here, but I swear he thinks I'm weird about not wanting other dogs here. I didn't tell him about the chickens, as it's not his dog and I didn't need to unload on him. He was kind enough to send me his roommate's number in case it happens again.
I'm obviously so beyond done with this and am still seething. If it happens again, I want to give facts about my egg production loss, as we sell eggs to help with chicken food costs. Maybe explaining money cost (not that bird safety isn't more important to us, but non-chicken people often don't understand) would help with understanding. Would seasonal shift cause that reduction in laying so fast?
Our flock has rather suddenly halved egg production. I'm trying to figure out if it's shorter daylight hours, or the fright they had this weekend.
We have a five year old buff orpington Lucia. She has full size eggs and is getting ready to molt, so her stopping laying fast would be normal as she looks very rumpled. Her eggs are the only full size ones, so it's easy to tell. We have 8 new orplets in chocolate and lavender. They all lay 3/4 size eggs still. The past three days, we have dropped from 5-8 eggs a day to 3-4 eggs a day. We have lots of sun (though obviously days are shortening), daytime temperatures around 80F with nights cooling into the 40F's.
Ever since we moved here I have struggled the a lazy attitude from neighbors near and far about dogs not wandering. It's not legal, but they don't care. I get dogs from a long way away on our property, and as people don't answer strange calls, they get texts that start with "I have your dog". Multiple of my immediate neighbors are related, so I try to tread carefully. We may not socialize, but it's good to be able to be on good terms with your neighbors. Example, when their well broke a few years ago, we ran a long host with an on/off valve on the end to the property line so they could all fill buckets for toilet filling etc at the three houses until their well could be fixed. Stuff that's considerate. Unfortunately they also have the "what's the big deal" attitude about dogs coming over here. Thankfully their current dogs were now trained or contained for the most part.
Neighbor behind us has a roommate that got a new dog this weekend. That dog was at our house both days. It upset our dog by peeing everywhere, growled at me, pissed in what was my culinary herb garden and harassed our chickens. Our birds were terrified. I've never seen them so upset. They exploded in panic if I moved too fast while I was in trying to calm them. I called the neighbor, who listened politely when I said the dog was here, but I swear he thinks I'm weird about not wanting other dogs here. I didn't tell him about the chickens, as it's not his dog and I didn't need to unload on him. He was kind enough to send me his roommate's number in case it happens again.
I'm obviously so beyond done with this and am still seething. If it happens again, I want to give facts about my egg production loss, as we sell eggs to help with chicken food costs. Maybe explaining money cost (not that bird safety isn't more important to us, but non-chicken people often don't understand) would help with understanding. Would seasonal shift cause that reduction in laying so fast?
