INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[twoacrefarm]

Hey guys! I'm from SOUTHERN SOUTHERN (yes its so far south, it requires two! ha!) Indiana. We got our first chickens back in April, and they started laying 8/24/16. Most people say they stop laying for the winter without light and heat. Our chickens do not have either light or heat, and out of 11 hens, we are still getting 9 to 11 every day. Are your chickens still laying? Just wondering if it's because they started laying later or what?

 

[iamfivewire]

Hello twoacrefarm - I'm quite a ways north (100 miles N/be of Angola, IN (which is in the NE corner / tri-state borders)).
Most of our birds have stopped laying - we are getting a few a day, but mainly from the pullets from the 2016 hatches.

 

[iamfivewire]

We have a few Legbars :
3 pullets (2 crested & 1 uncrested)
1 crested Roo
We also use him over our White Leghorns to create Sapphires - they look like a crested Leghorn , tho they may have a few black splotches in their feathering.
You get the benefit of the high number egg production from the Leghorn side & a pale blue egg shell from the Legbar side.
I had also read that most USA Legbars do not get the best blue color eggs as the bloodlines of the ones in the UK. Many lay more towards a blue-green color, similar to many of the EEs.
The chick auto-sexing is a nice benefit tho.

 

[Andrew10]

Agrarian in Indianapolis get's their chicks from Meyer Hatchery and you can request them to order certain birds for you.  It also depends on how close you want it - Meyer is in Polk, OH which is about 4 hours from Anderson

Thanks for the info but I have already looked at agrarian and they only sell hens and no new hampshire reds thanks

 

[Leahs Mom]

Hey guys! I'm from SOUTHERN SOUTHERN (yes its so far south, it requires two! ha!) Indiana. We got our first chickens back in April, and they started laying 8/24/16. Most people say they stop laying for the winter without light and heat. Our chickens do not have either light or heat, and out of 11 hens, we are still getting 9 to 11 every day. Are your chickens still laying? Just wondering if it's because they started laying later or what?

@twoacrefarm
Hello to you from the north north!!!!

Yes, first year pullets will lay all winter long. The second winter they will usually quit laying around October/November then pick up again in late January to early February usually.

That is why most egg chicken farmers keep their birds for 1.5 years then butcher that fall. They purchase new birds every spring that are ready to start laying just before they butcher the 1.5 yos for stewing hens. That way they don't have any down time without eggs. And they don't feed birds that aren't producing over the winter.


I have some 5 yo hens that are still laying strong; just not during the winter months.

 

[Leahs Mom]

omgosh you guys.... Janet shared this on FB and I had to post it here. @jchny2000

 

[twoacrefarm]

That makes perfect sense! I don't eat meat (luckily for my ladies, I don't like the flavor!) so they get to hang around until they die off.

 

[twoacrefarm]

omgosh you guys.... Janet shared this on FB and I had to post it here. @jchny2000

OMG! That is so awesome!! think that would fly here?

 

[Leahs Mom]

I wish!

 

[Indyshent]

I've shared a number of "chickens as therapy animals in old folks homes" stories through the years. Having them around give the patients something to do and something to look forward to doing. They like getting eggs, petting birds, etc. Chickens are wonderful therapy animals (now to get them box trained or non-pathenogenic regarding certain poultry-borne diseases and such is a different issue, but otherwise, they're great).