Minnesota!

[Andi]

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Congratulations! What a beautiful egg it is, too! It reminds me of my first egg. It was hard to crack it on purpose and eat it. (It did taste wonderful though.) Thanks for sharing the excitement.

 

[Andi]

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And cute free loaders they are, I'm sure!

Try upping their protein a bit. It helped mine. I don't think the days are too short yet, but molting does stress their bodies. The protein should help with not only egg production but feather production, too. Good luck!

 

[phasianidae]

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Awesome for you! I haven't gotten an egg in over two weeks from my 11 layers that are old enough to lay - freeloaders ! Moulting, cold, light deprivation ???

Mine went almost as long, and I have a couple hundred chickens! Not all mature hens though, but still

 

[Ole and Lena]

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Awesome for you! I haven't gotten an egg in over two weeks from my 11 layers that are old enough to lay - freeloaders ! Moulting, cold, light deprivation ???

What are you feeding? Our 17 born around Mem day are avging 10 a day. They eat plain farm store brand lay-ration and whatever bugs they could catch. Have been helping them scavenge a bit with leftover corn from the field next door that the combine missed and lately a generous portion of venison tallow and scraps. Ours like to hide eggs. Look around if yours are free to roam.

 

[coldupnorth]

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Awesome for you! I haven't gotten an egg in over two weeks from my 11 layers that are old enough to lay - freeloaders ! Moulting, cold, light deprivation ???

What are you feeding? Our 17 born around Mem day are avging 10 a day. They eat plain farm store brand lay-ration and whatever bugs they could catch. Have been helping them scavenge a bit with leftover corn from the field next door that the combine missed and lately a generous portion of venison tallow and scraps. Ours like to hide eggs. Look around if yours are free to roam.

They aren't free to roam unfortunately because of the many neighbor dogs that are free roaming. We are in the country and have acreage, but everyone lets their dogs roam (our dogs do not because we have an invisible fence for them). Most of the hens are 1 1/2 years old and are moulting, judging by the sheer amount of feathers in their run and coop and their bald spots. The two pullets that were laying, may not be laying right now because a combination of cold, less light (coop is on the north side of a pole building) and I've been building an addition to their coop so I'm stressing them out with my pounding. The coop addition should be done within the week and then I'll put a light on a timer in their coop and see what happens then. I've been supplementing their crumble with some cooked rice, fresh veggies, a little dry cat food and some high protein showbird pellets (not many though). My 1 1/2 year old hens were producing like crazy last year at this time, but they were not moulting nor was their peace and quiet disturbed. I'll just wait it out - I'm sure they will start laying again when things calm down and their feathers grow back

 

[Summer98]

I'm from Southern MN. We just built a coop this Fall and will be getting the chicks later. I can't wait. I think the Brahmas are absolutely gorgeous, but I am looking forward to colored eggs from EE too. We insulated our coop, so hopefully it will be warm enough for them.

 

[TinkyFeathers]

Hi guys! I'm new and from Minnesota!

 

[High Roost Ranch]

Welcome to the MN thread Summer98 and TinkyFeathers. Hope you both and your birds are staying toasty warm with this snow and cold.

 

[grammypam]

Welcome Summer and Tinky!

 

[colleensstuff]

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I have Silver Laced Brahmas from Medicine Man, I'll have chicks and hatching eggs from them in the spring. They're gorgeous and huge!