Hi, not only new to the forum, but new to "clucker" keeping. (
) I found y'all on a Google search for "laying hen temperature". Thank God that I went on to the second page in Google because this was the first place that gave me a real, practical answer. (I will not be providing extra heat for the hens. Thank you!
)
We live in rural Travis County, Texas on a horse ranch.
We started out this spring with 7 Red Sex-Link hens (Well to be really truthful, 7 hens and one rooster. The rooster ran away the first week.
) Only two bits of excitement concerning them. The first when we brought them home. Our rescued dog, an elderly short-haired German Pointer jumped into the bed of the pickup. What can I say, she's a bird dog. No real harm done. They were in a cage. The next was a bit more disastrous. A neighbors dog was getting into the yard, driving the chickens out of their run and killing them. We lost 3. Clipped wings, better fencing and the judicious use of a pellet gun on the dog solved that problem and we replaced the lost hens.
The only real problem we're having is egg production. Everything I've read says we should get 1-2 eggs per day per hen. We're only getting 3-5 total per day. Not a big deal as that's more than enough for us, our neighbors and friends, but I was hoping to have some to sell. That we are having the hottest, driest summer on record may have something to do with it. I don't know. We just added three more hens to the flock, changed their feed and it's finally cooling off so I have hope.
I look forward to finding more practical advice here when I have time to read thorough the forum, but right now I have to go to the hardware store to get some stuff to repair the the roof on the nesting box. The wind blew it off.
OldGuy43
We live in rural Travis County, Texas on a horse ranch.
We started out this spring with 7 Red Sex-Link hens (Well to be really truthful, 7 hens and one rooster. The rooster ran away the first week.
The only real problem we're having is egg production. Everything I've read says we should get 1-2 eggs per day per hen. We're only getting 3-5 total per day. Not a big deal as that's more than enough for us, our neighbors and friends, but I was hoping to have some to sell. That we are having the hottest, driest summer on record may have something to do with it. I don't know. We just added three more hens to the flock, changed their feed and it's finally cooling off so I have hope.
I look forward to finding more practical advice here when I have time to read thorough the forum, but right now I have to go to the hardware store to get some stuff to repair the the roof on the nesting box. The wind blew it off.
OldGuy43
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