Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Folly's place]

Any stress, including overcrowding, can reduce egg production. Also molting and if you aren't adding extra hours of light. That muddy run can't be good either. Can you fix the drainage, and add several inches of mulch? Any thing would help. Stinky eggs are awful! Mary

 

[wannahomestead]

Any stress, including overcrowding, can reduce egg production. Also molting and if you aren't adding extra hours of light. That muddy run can't be good either. Can you fix the drainage, and add several inches of mulch? Any thing would help. Stinky eggs are awful! Mary

I can't do too much for drainage at this point . I could toss another straw bail in, but right now there's a noticeable "squish" if you walk in the run. I am trying to work a pen expansion in before winter hits too hard, possibly this week/weekend which would help take some of the pressure off.

 

[yochickiemomma]

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I picked up 4 9wk old Isa brown pullets Saturday morning. They're all happy and appear healthy. My hubby and 2 friends processed my ginormus toms saturday night ( Im squeamish and couldn't do it). my feed bill should go down a lot.

 

[aart]

Quote: Is the run on low ground....or is there a run off issue.....or just too much rain and not good draining soil???

Some straw can help, best to mix it with some aged wood chips, dry (as possible) leaves, and other 'browns'. Just don't go with too much of one thing, and watch for matting that can occur with too much material added at once....tossing some scratch out can make the birds help keep it mixed up.

And yes, agrees with Mary....crowding can cause drop in production and laying 'not in nests'. Am dealing with that last one now, anyone want some 18 mo hens?

 

[laceyj]

So my question is we have three Ameraucana chickens that are about a year and a half old and they have all stopped laying. I can say without a doubt we have not seen an egg out of them in at least 2 weeks. The last 2 months we would get maybe 2-3 eggs per week. Just wondering if that is normal for this breed, are they done laying??

 

[aart]

So my question is we have three Ameraucana chickens that are about a year and a half old and they have all stopped laying. I can say without a doubt we have not seen an egg out of them in at least 2 weeks. The last 2 months we would get maybe 2-3 eggs per week. Just wondering if that is normal for this breed, are they done laying??

Welcome to BYC and the Michigan chat thread!

At that age, probably molting, and hopefully will start back up after the days start getting longer.
...and Easter Eggers(probably not Ameraucanas unless you got from reputable breeder-post pics to be sure) are notorious for inconsistent laying.

 

[laceyj]

Welcome to BYC and the Michigan chat thread!

At that age, probably molting, and hopefully will start back up after the days start getting longer.
...and Easter Eggers(probably not Ameraucanas unless you got from reputable breeder-post pics to be sure) are notorious for inconsistent laying.

So how long do they molt for?? I thought it was just a few weeks out something??

 

[wannahomestead]

Is the run on low ground....or is there a run off issue.....or just too much rain and not good draining soil???

Some straw can help, best to mix it with some aged wood chips, dry (as possible) leaves, and other 'browns'. Just don't go with too much of one thing, and watch for matting that can occur with too much material added at once....tossing some scratch out can make the birds help keep it mixed up.

And yes, agrees with Mary....crowding can cause drop in production and laying 'not in nests'. Am dealing with that last one now, anyone want some 18 mo hens?

Definitely poor draining soil is a contributor I think. My soil is very heavy clay consistency. I think some of my issue is matting of the straw as well.

I'll grab a couple pictures today while I'm working outside so y'all can see what I have going on.

 

[aart]

Quote: Hard to say, each bird can be different...takes at least a couple or three weeks to drop and regrow feathers.
Resumption of laying might take yet another few weeks to a couple months after molt....they may wait until the days start getting longer again after solstice.

You can use supplemental lighting to increase winter laying. Here's a pretty good article on supplemental lighting.

Feeding higher protein feed can help molt go faster.

I like to feed a flock raiser/grower/finisher 20% protein crumble full time to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat. I do grind up the crumbles (in the blender) for the chicks for the first week or so.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer. I adjust the amounts of other feeds to get the protein levels desired with varying situations.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided during molting and if I see any feather eating.

 

[yochickiemomma]

So this is what it's like to get the cold shoulder from my new babies or maybe their camera shy. lol Still need a name for one of them.