More light = more eggs!!

[LynneP]

We're adding light. We had a timer but it wasn't keeping the correct time so we returned it for another. Girls are laying well under natural light at this time, but that will change as the days rapidly shorten this week-end. Eggs under the northern lights, that's what we want!

 

[jjthink]

I don't add extra hours of light, preferring to let their bodies rest in the "off" season. Constant egg laying may be a sure way for a hen to burn out sooner with reproductive problems. Having seen how awful they feel with these problems, I want to try everything I can to avoid or delay their onset.

As to feed, I have only two birds and end up throwing away so much.....am going to see about donating the majority of each bag to someone who could use it. Barely make a dent in a $13/$15 fifty pound bag in a couple of months then feel it's not fresh anymore and start anew. It seems to cost so little if I just calculate what does get used. It's the 80-90% that doesn't get used that is a shame. However, all the high quality treats are a horse of a different color! - fruits, veggies, yogurt, sunflower seeds etc etc. $6 for a teeny weeny container of blueberries the other day - split it between us and our feathered friends.

JJ

 

[Mrs MIA]

Shoot! I'd take it! LOL!

They'd finish it off in less than a week.

I forgot to mention that selling eggs is part of my local business, too, so though we don't do anything radical, we do try to at least maintain a "normal" (i.e. the length of day seen in, say, Colorado in the winter) amount of daylight each day.

 

[BUG126]

Quote:
Cant you get smaller bags where you are at? I have the option of 25 or 50 lb pre-bagged and the feed store also makes their own bags in 5 or 10 lbs.

 

[tygab]

I'm really curious to see what will happen. Ours were born on May 19, which makes them 4 months old now, and just coming into laying age. But, we're quickly losing light and they already head into the coop at 7 or so now which means they're not getting 13 hrs. I don't want to really add light to force it, but I am kind of dreading not getting a single egg from them until next spring. I hope they lay at least a little (12 hens) over the winter.

Sigh.

 

[Mrs MIA]

We had a gorgeous morning with lots of sunshine... even my button quail seemed to pick up on the laying. It's been so dark here with all the rain this year - our solar-powered electric fence wasn't charged much at all this year. No sun! Well, it's raining again, with hail, and lightning and thunder... there go the eggs...

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I believe you will get some eggs, in fact any day now. Mine started laying at 17 weeks. The last to lay was 27 weeks. All were from the same hatch. My birds were hatched the in the summer. They still started laying in the winter, but I kept a red heat lamp on.

 

[orcasislandchickens]

Yes it would be interesting to track the longevity of the hens laying years with and without suplemental light, especially for those of us in the north. I am about as close as you can get to the Canadian border and my girls are already wanting in at 5:30. It's not alaska, but it is dark, with short days a lot of the year. My 4 are only pets though, and there is no outlet so I'm not planning on using suplemental light or heat for my girls.

I agree about the waste of feed when you have just a few. I am trying to work out
something with one of my more rural, chicken rich, neighbors.

If someone wants to compile yearly data or something, I do plan to keep laying records....

 

[jjthink]

Quote:
It's a good question - I always ask and they always say no - 50 pound bags only. Haven't found a place that offers smaller....
It's even worse than I portrayed - I buy a 50 pound of layer for her and a 50 pound bag of game bird maintenance for him! And a 50 pound bag of scratch, the latest of which got maybe 1 pound used - I feel like I have to throw the rest out because it's been months - I should have donated it awhile back but time got the better of me and I worry that the NJ humidity may have affected its quality. Now I just don't feel like lugging it to the curb! From now on at least with regard to scratch - and now that it's getting cold - maybe I can make my own by buying smaller quantities of stuff like oats, corn and whatever else is in there.
JJ

 

[Heather J]

Unless you get bugs or varmints in your scratch, I wouldn't worry about that going bad--dried, whole grain like that stays good for years, though maybe you don't want to let it go that long, and there's no reason you can't feed your rooster laying feed--especially if you are supplementing with lots of treats.

Another option, if you have a little extra freezer space, would be to freeze at least part of your feed in gallon sized zip-lock bags, then you'd be able to use more from each bag. You might also see if you can find someone else in your area who has chickens that will let you split a part of one of their bags. If I knew someone with only a few birds, I'd be happy to sell them ten pounds of feed from one of my bags.