Leghorns -19 weeks to first eggs

[RUNuts]

No. Golf balls in one nest. One egg got laid in the other box. Only one. That was where the light red hen tries to sleep. I'm blocking at night now. She is lower on the pecking order, but been sleeping with the others.

 

[aart]

Put fakies in all nests, and they will get used.

 

[Kiki]

I don't use fakies....

 

[RUNuts]

OK, decoys in both nests. 2 piled into the other nest tonight.

 

[aart]

OK, decoys in both nests. 2 piled into the other nest tonight

Tonight?!? Not to sleep in....SMH

 

[RUNuts]

Yes, 2 hens were settling down to sleep when I went to block the nest and kicked them out. Each nest box has a golf ball in it now. 1 decoy should be sufficient, I hope.

Before you ask, 16 feet of roosting space at the top with another 5 feet 1 foot lower. 18 hens and I can see that we are pushing the 1 foot per hen guideline for roosting space. Chicken tractor in the plans, but keeps slipping. I'm hesitant to split the flock also. Even if I do take out the lower echelon. Hmm.

Also, I am hauling partially composted wood chips from the county dump and I don't know what they are eating, but they fill their crops up with the mulch pickings. Fungi or bacteria or whatever, they love the stuff. I don't see many bugs when I load it and I have examined it close. Ain't nature a wonder?

 

[aart]

1 decoy should be sufficient, I hope.

Yeppers, works here. I experimented with leaving more and it didn't seem to make a diff.

 

[RUNuts]

I lost the bet. 8 eggs today with a single brown. Have 3 brown egg layers squatting for me. But a single brown egg daily. Things that make you go hummm.

The last 3 brown eggs all look similar. Not sure if that tells us anything.

Pumpkin and kitchen scraps still very popular.

Total egg production is 99 eggs in not quite a month. First egg was 10-10 to today.

 

[RUNuts]

7 eggs with 1 brown. Girls haven't been laying a month. No worries. Someone took a day off. I'm more concerned about the others who aren't laying yet but getting close. Pumpkin rinds are disappearing from the 2 steamed pumpkins that were processed. Mmm-Mmm.

 

[RUNuts]

Correction to yesterday. 8 eggs. Found one under the roost this morning that wasn't there yesterday, so I'll mark it for yesterday. Glad it didn't break from the drop. Just put in some fluffy wood chips.

Still small eggs. Read in another thread that they will get bigger with time. 4-6 months. So when the other hens start, I'll have a batch of small eggs mixed with the larger ones from the leghorns laying all winter (I hope). By this time next fall, there should be a full dozen full size.

Looking at the yolks, I will say they are getting darker from the pumpkin. Still early. Will have to confirm this.