Hows my environment

[Abril1127]

Hi guys,
We arn't doing too good at the backyard chicken thing. We went through several roosters and one massacre by our own dog and now have 5 lovely hens...ok 4 lovely hen and one maybe rooster.
2 of the hens came to us from a friend, they are just a little over a year and already laying. We have had them 3 weeks and still no eggs. The man we got them from said his stopped laying too. He left them alone while he went out of town. They do not appear broody.
The other 2 that we have had for months were supposed to start laying in Sept & Oct.

They are starting to act like a flock now. With the biggest 2 still occasionally bickering. They for the most part free range together. I generally let them out around 4pm and they put themselves up atound 7pm.
Here is the coop. About 4' x 7'.
What could I do better to get my first egg?

I also added an extra run on this side

 

[DanEP]

Hubby's right, you need the light inside to wake them up and to simulate longer hours of daylight. In a coop that small you don't need a lot of light even a 40-60 watt bulb would work fine. I'd also consider cutting in a window above the access doors to let in more light and increase ventilation. As the days get shorter you will need to get your girls up earlier. I'm getting mine up about 4:30 right now but will be getting them up at four within a month.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

With chickens, you never need to be concerned with cold, especially in TX. You need ventilation. Chickens can live in trees. How does one keep cold and wind out of trees?

It can hit -20 F here and I have 1/3 of both the East and West wall of buildings open. No worries. They go to bed wearing down winter coats, not negligees.

 

[momto6Ls]

I want to jump in with questions!! How cold is too cold? I was told when it gets down to about 0 degrees they need a heat lamp. My light is a heat lamp, hanging from the ceiling of the coop. I can stand up inside my coop. I have a "window" that is the full length of one wall and the top 1/3 of that wall that is covered with chicken wire and has a wooden door that we close at night. (No sense advertising to chicken eating critters that they are there!) With the people door, chicken doors and windows closed at night it is pretty tight and we have never had any problem with losing hens to the local critters. (skunk, mink, and racoon are what mostly get them our here.)

I am still opening the window during the day, and was wondering just today if I should stop. From this conversation I get the idea that I shouldn't...but how cold is too cold? I am in Utah. It will get down to below 0 for a few days on average. Just want to know what ya'll do! :0)

AND...how does cold effect the laying?

It is NOT cold here yet. It has gotten down to 40's at night. It shouldn't be effecting my eggs (at least that is what I think). They have a light on every night all night - I just don't have a timer. So I know they are getting enough light. It is a heat lamp, as I said - plenty warm! So why has my egg production dropped from an 18 count a day down to single digits? I have customers and I don't know what to do!!

The girls are all new - in the 8 month range.

Here are the two things that have changed...either one possible problems?

1. I was feeding oyster shell and they were eating my profit!! LOL I changed to a calcium rock that a neighbor gave me to try. They are not taking as much of this as the oyster shell...but that would only effect hardness of the eggs, not numbers...right?

2. They really starting taking off - laying well - when we processed the largest roosters that were abusing them. (we started out with more roosters than hens - and we have 2 dozen hens) We are down to 6 roosters, but they are big enough to process now and are bothering the hens. (I call it gang rape) I separated the roosters, which is tricky - we really don't have anywhere to put them. It means leaving the run closed with the roosters in there, or having all the hens in the run and letting the roosters free range. I have been alternating - every other day. The girls always have access to the coop for laying in the nest boxes...but about 6 of the hens were laying in odd places before this. LOL 4 in the goat's hay box, 1 under a bush and 1 under some tall flowers in the front yard. They are all fenced in a farm yard, but we have a few that figure out how to get out no matter what we do. Long story very long...their routine has been interrupted by the separation. Sometimes they can't get to their preferred place to lay.

I thought separation would help the production - it has tanked!! We got 4 eggs yesterday! It is just the routine thing? I have just today figured out how to keep the roosters completely separated - we had some that would end up with the hens - they just jumped to fences. I think today will be really separate...

They also started eating less when the weather started to cool down. We had a slight dip in egg production a while ago, but I realized we were below 12 hours of sun, and started the light right away. After that we were getting the 18 count a day.

ANY help would be appreciated. Sorry it is so long.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How cold is too cold? How high is too high? How far is too far? To some questions there are no good answers. I know I’m sounding like a smart aleck. It is a good question, it’s just hard to answer.

I’ve seen chickens sleep in trees in below zero Fahrenheit weather. People in Nova Scotia and the Michigan Peninsula has written about chickens sleeping in trees there the entire winter and those temps have to be well below zero. Those chickens are not going to be sleeping on a dead limb overlooking a bluff, squawking defiantly in the teeth of a blizzard. Like the wild birds that overwinter where you are without the benefit of a heat lamp, they seek shelter when the weather gets too rough. It’s not the cold so much they need to avoid, it’s the wind.

What chickens need in cold weather is not heat, they need protection from wind and good ventilation. Protection from wind is pretty easy to understand. It’s the ventilation that sometimes surprises people. In trees they have good ventilation but in coops they may be more limited. There are a couple of potential problems. When their poop gets concentrated and breaks down it forms ammonia. Ammonia can be fatal if the concentration gets high enough. Luckily ammonia is lighter than air so just a small hole over their heads will allow that ammonia to escape. Problem averted.

The other problem is that the excess moisture from their breathing, their poop, and waterers if there is thawed water in there can raise the humidity. High humidity can lead to frostbite. You need enough air movement to remove that moisture without a strong breeze hitting them. Warm air both holds more moisture than cold air and warm air rises. On a perfectly calm day the heat form their breathing, fresh poop, the thawed water, and maybe even the ground if the air temperature is colder than the ground will move a surprising amount of moisture laden warm air out of openings up high. On a windy day a couple of openings over their heads allows a strong breeze to pass over their heads but will also create enough turbulence to remove the air in the coop without a strong breeze hitting the chickens. One mistake a lot of people make is to lock their chickens up so tight in cold weather they don’t get enough ventilation. People in the southern states in the US cause their chickens to get frostbite in temperatures that should pose no risk at all.

How cold is too cold? I don’t have a hard and fast number for you, I just know too cold is pretty darn cold if you keep breezes off of them and give them good ventilation. If you lock them up tight, anything below freezing poses a risk. Even above freezing ammonia could be a problem.

The main reason chickens north of the equator stop laying this time of year is the molt. It’s not the cold, it’s the days getting shorter. I went through some of that in my post above. I don’t know when you started that 24 hour a day light, that may have been after they started molting. If so, it’s too late to stop the molt.

There’s a problem with 24 hour a day light too. It stresses them and can lead to egg laying problems. Just like you and me they need some dark downtime or their system gets all messed up. If you want to add light go ahead, but try to give them at least 10 hours of darkness. You’ll get better results.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Chickens over a year old would normally be molting this time of year.
The move is stressful because it disrupts their routine. Stress will temporarily stop ovulation.
Birds at point of lay in Sept, Oct, Nov. will take longer to begin because of day length.
If you add a light to the coop on a timer to increase day length to around 13+ hours, The ones that aren't molting should start laying in a week or two.

 

[Abril1127]

Thanks ChickenCanoe!

I did set up a light about 10 days ago. I put it in the outside area facing up and reflecting off the tin roof. Yesterday I moved it closer to the roost door so it would shine inside a bit more.
My Hubby thinks we need one inside but I say the sun has never shown inside the cave like coop. What do ya'll think?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

X2
It isn't about where the sun normally shines. What you're trying to replicate is a longer day. That means the light needs to be bright enough to read a newspaper by at roost height. I doubt you can do that with an outside light.

The pineal gland behind the eye detects light and day length, increasing day length stimulates hormones to commence lay. Declining day length tells hormones to shut down laying.

 

[Abril1127]

I have a couple small vent holes, probably 4" diameter. Not much to let the light in. If I make some windows on the coop, wouldn't I be letting more cold in? How do I combat that?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

At 4 AM in the middle of January, it will be the same temperature inside an unheated building as it is outside regardless of how much ventilation so open it up. You need to get humidity and ammonia out and fresh air in.