I FOUND OUT WHY MY HENS AREN'T LAYING!!!!!! :)

[lauralou]

Thanks, Miss Prissy. I slice up the liver and other scraps into little chicken-bite-sized pieces. But they also totally vaccuum up the butchering area in general, so clearly that's not necessary.

Chickens love raw meat!

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Yes they do and I think many people forget or don't know this. They weren't meant to live on a grain diet. They need meat protein.

I found what was left of a rat in the coop one day. I felt sorry for the rat.

 

[chilling in muscadine]

Yea Christina I would save your electricity. Years ago I thought I would need to do the light thing but I have found that many of my girls do continue to lay during the winter. You'll be getting eggs before you know it.

Congrats on the test!!

 

[Okiegent]

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[Okiegent]

Well here is two cents from a old man. Chicken Obesessed My chickens have not layed hardly any eggs to speak of since they went into molt, about a month ago. Some years that last a month and others not molting lay during this spell. Sometime that last two or three months like the case now. You have to make a desision as to weather or not you want to turn a light on or not. Depending on how pitifull I get to feeling later on. I might give them a light for warmth and to get them to lay a little more for me. However there is no gaurantee they will. I never mess with what I feed them in the winter months seems to me there systems are finicky enough about then. Somtime in the warmer days I will throw them some garden scraps or peel them an apple if I have time.My girls and two little men arer fairly good to me. However I do cuss them somtime and thereaten them. This serves no purpose except I have to repent and it draws me back to the good Lord. So if it was me I would leave them alone buy some eggs or do without. Watch them and see that they are acting fairly normal.Then enjoy them more.Most of the time we take way better care of our chickens than they need. Therfore they really do pretty good. However they are for the most part hobbies,pets,food or little friends to us. For me as for some of you. They supply food and there eggs we sell to buy more chicken feed . So we get concerned as to when they will lay. If any of you figure it out excactly. Please let this old man know. Have a great day.

 

[moonlitfarms]

Out of my 11 girls i have 5 "older ladies" that are molting then I have 6 girls that are 8 months old. They have all stopped laying! We are on 2 weeks now of no eggs. I can understand the Ladies who are molting but my girls? I thought someone was actually stealing my eggs but I ruled that out. Any thoughts?

 

[WriterofWords]

Quote:
Hello, I'm a chicken, please send me your livers!

 

[Grandmamoocowchicky]

I live in lower-upper Michigan near the bay. Give me some ideas on helping my chickens fair the winter. Do any of your hens lay during the winter months? How many hours of light should they be getting? I have buff orphingtons/RIR cross, Delawares and Dominickers. Thank you, usually I get zilch for eggs when the snow flies. Would like to see if I can change that.

 

[digitS']

Welcome to BYC!

I only have 4 pullets in my backyard coop. Three of them are laying and the 4th acts like she should start . . . I'm hoping.

When natural light dropped below 11 hours a day, I turned an 11 watt CF bulb on at 14 hours/day. I've increased that slowly to 15 hours now. I've read that there's no benefit from giving them more than 17 hours and less than 8 will probably turn off the eggs completely. Increasing light, prompts them to start laying.

The pullets started laying at 21, 23, & 24 weeks . . . I'm still waiting at 25 weeks for that one

.

Since the 3rd pullet started laying, they've had 3, 0, 3, 3 eggs in the nest box over the last 4 days.

I used to give the birds 12 hours of light during the Winter and that worked okay, also. There's no open window in the insulated part of the coop now, so the light is only from the bulb. They have access to the outdoors but there's just 9 hours of sunlight here right now.

Steve

 

[luvmygirlsinAK]

Quote:
I live in North Pole, AK, and my girls are each giving me an egg a day. We have 6 hours of sunshine right now, and _18 degrees below zero F. temperatures. I leave the lights on 14 hours a day, and we have an oil filled radiator style electric heater in a very well insulated coop. We make sure the temperature is around 45 to 55 degrees inside, and I give the chickens a small amount of cayenne pepper in their water for warmth. which they love, by the way. I also give them organic coconut chips, flax seed, spelt grain, rolled oats, molasses flakes, pumpkin seeds, (they go nuts over those!) kelp granules, dried comfrey, plenty of organic sprouted seeds, wheatgrass, etc., including an array of "table" scraps with meat that doesn't go to our german shepherd along with their organic layer pellets. All extra ingredients are in much smaller amounts, of course. They also have oyster shell grit and gravel available, and I occasionally add DE to their feed, along with some in their dust bath and mixed in with their pine shavings. They are shamefully spoiled, I'm afraid, but I sure do enjoy them!! Especially watching them take a dust bath!!! That's always worth a giggle or two!