How Many Eggs Did You Get Today?

[pecky33]

I hope you have a good chat with your girls there, how much mommy disappointed in them for not pooping breakfast.
4, 5 years old and winter also, might be that the reason. The 2 years old, might be just winter ?
I have a freeloader in my flock , and she is very demanding.
I am looking forward to see my girls live to that good age, the oldest girl I have is 3.5 years old.

Yes, I have been talking with them. I do think the younger ones are just following along with the pattern of the older ones for winter.

If you take care of your chickens, I’m sure they’ll get happy and old!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

We're outside of Tucson. Summer isn't just summer; it's six months long here, from approximately April into October. We're not really safe again until November.

We call those the Hell Months for good reason. The heat is relentless and the nights don't cool off much. It's hot all the time. You have to watch your flock very carefully. We use cameras since I can't stand to be outdoors for long when it's hot. Run out - do coop chores - run back inside.

We use shade, fans, misters, ice blocks, and frozen treats for the hens. It's not unusual to have an air conditioner in your coop; we don't but I'm thinking about it.

Some breeds do better in the heat than others. I try to buy chicks from local lines that have been in our desert for several generations. Minorcas and black Australorps seem to do adapt pretty well to the kind of heat we have, for example.

Sometimes chickens die in the summer and there's not much you can do. We keep six recovery cages ready inside the house so we can bring indoors any hens who look like they're struggling. We had to do that a few times last summer but everyone made it through.

We even had a tornado this year. That was a first for me. It vaporized our coop and run and everything else that was in the yard including our fence, our huge 70-year-old tree that shaded much of the east side of the house, and parts of our roof, BUT we saved the flock, every one of them. 2024 was a particularly terrible summer. I start feeling anxious just thinking about 2025.

Mercy! That's extreme! I hadn't heard about the tornado, sorry to hear about your losses. But glad your flock all survived. Wow.

 

[Ponypoor]

I gave my dogs boiled egg. Too much of the good thing is also bad for them. I don't know how else to explain it.

Sometimes they just can’t handle too rich foods. Same as my old horses, I keep them off heavy green grass in the Spring. Too rich for them.

 

[Ponypoor]

We're outside of Tucson. Summer isn't just summer; it's six months long here, from approximately April into October. We're not really safe again until November.

We call those the Hell Months for good reason. The heat is relentless and the nights don't cool off much. It's hot all the time. You have to watch your flock very carefully. We use cameras since I can't stand to be outdoors for long when it's hot. Run out - do coop chores - run back inside.

We use shade, fans, misters, ice blocks, and frozen treats for the hens. It's not unusual to have an air conditioner in your coop; we don't but I'm thinking about it.

Some breeds do better in the heat than others. I try to buy chicks from local lines that have been in our desert for several generations. Minorcas and black Australorps seem to do adapt pretty well to the kind of heat we have, for example.

Sometimes chickens die in the summer and there's not much you can do. We keep six recovery cages ready inside the house so we can bring indoors any hens who look like they're struggling. We had to do that a few times last summer but everyone made it through.

We even had a tornado this year. That was a first for me. It vaporized our coop and run and everything else that was in the yard including our fence, our huge 70-year-old tree that shaded much of the east side of the house, and parts of our roof, BUT we saved the flock, every one of them. 2024 was a particularly terrible summer. I start feeling anxious just thinking about 2025.

Wow I don’t recall the tornado, that’s terrifying. Very glad all of you were ok.

 

[Ponypoor]

It is late. They're 9 and 10 months old so it's their first winter. We don't lose much daylight here, summer is 14.5 hours and winter is 10.5 hours.

Temps were in the triple digits all the way through October. That messed up everyone, frankly. I've never hated an October in my life - it's my favorite month - but I hated that one. I wouldn't be surprised if the crazy long hellish temps affected the hens. Nights now are in the 40s so they should be okay.

It’s ridiculous here also, should be winter, but Spring made and appearance - rained like crazy this weekend, all the snow is gone! Poor horses don’t know if it’s winter or spring.

And the chooks are basically just hanging out in the barn, which is what they would normally do in winter. But yesterday was so mild they wanted out, but they soon came back in due to the heavy rain.

All my older ladies have stopped laying, and only my this year pullets are laying.

 

[Smokerbill]

The 5 ladies gave me 4 nice eggs this morning.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Tornados don't happen here so no one knew what it was at the time. It's not like there was a tornado warning and we got prepared or anything. We get violent storms in the summer and we saw the wind and rain were getting pretty crazy so we went out to check on the chickens.

The run is completely exposed in the yard but the coop where they sleep is in a relatively protected area between a brick wall and the house so we got everyone in there. It has a tarp over it for shade and rain and we stood out there and hung onto that tarp for dear life to try and protect the coop while we watched the wind destroy everything around us. I remember seeing branches fly past from trees that don't grow anywhere near us and wondering where the heck those came from. Plants, roofing, sheds, car covers, trampolines - everything was blowing by and at us. We were pelted with hail and debris. The wind and rain roared like freight train. My ears rang for an hour afterward.

I'll never forget that day. Standing outside in a freakin' tornado without knowing that's what it was. Crazy. We were bruised up from flying debris and soaked through but we're very lucky we weren't badly hurt and everyone in the flock was safe. Afterward I think I had the nicest hot shower of my life!

 

[pennyJo1960]

I had 11 eggs last night some of the older girls have molted and are back.
I spent my first 8 years in tornado land.
I retired same place I was brought to and understood Dad's choice.

 

[Marle94]

First Golden Comet egg since the 19th of December! Seems to have a nice shell, yay!
*and a Banty Jade egg at the end of the day!

 

[Winderdear]

Tornados don't happen here so no one knew what it was at the time. It's not like there was a tornado warning and we got prepared or anything. We get violent storms in the summer and we saw the wind and rain were getting pretty crazy so we went out to check on the chickens.

The run is completely exposed in the yard but the coop where they sleep is in a relatively protected area between a brick wall and the house so we got everyone in there. It has a tarp over it for shade and rain and we stood out there and hung onto that tarp for dear life while we watched the wind destroy everything around us. I remember seeing branches fly past from trees that don't grow anywhere near us and wondering where the heck those came from. Plants, roofing, sheds, car covers, trampolines - everything was blowing by and at us. We were pelted with hail and debris. The wind and rain roared like freight train. My ears rang for an hour afterward.

I'll never forget that day. Standing outside in a freakin' tornado without knowing that's what it was. Crazy. We were bruised up from flying debris and soaked through but we're very lucky we weren't badly hurt and everyone in the flock was safe. Afterward I think I had the nicest hot shower of my life!

That sounds absolutely horrifying. I grew up in Maricopa county in AZ, and like you I wouldn’t have known what to do in that situation. I’m so glad you and your flock survived and it’s a miracle none of you were seriously hurt!