Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[BullChick]

I just figured out that Rory and Jaebels are 15 weeks old. Rory is starting to make a more grownup clucky sound but it sounds more quacky. Jaebels (aka Jezebel, my husband's name for her) is still peeping. 

Kinda exciting when they stop peeping.

 

[stake]

GM all:

Well, its now been a week since my last eggs....as far as I can tell, a couple of the girls are molting and the others have just gone on strike....c'est la vie....

 

[BullChick]

I am slowly getting fewer eggs. I'm down to six brown eggs and ironically my older Pekin per day.
Hmm. Brightpennies and I just couldn't be sure if she was taking the male or female Pekin. I don't think we were wrong, but the female should have been laying already.
Anyway, I have seventeen female birds of laying age. Three I have yet to see an egg from.

 

[dheltzel]

I am slowly getting fewer eggs. I'm down to six brown eggs and ironically my older Pekin per day.
Hmm.

Brightpennies and I just couldn't be sure if she was taking the male or female Pekin. I don't think we were wrong, but the female should have been laying already.
Anyway, I have seventeen female birds of laying age. Three I have yet to see an egg from.

Most of mine have stopped completely. The only pen laying moderately well are the younger Rees Legbars. 12 pullets, some days I get 8 eggs, some days just 2, so they are each still laying (on average) 3 eggs per week, not bad for October and no supplemental lighting .

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

I am slowly getting fewer eggs. I'm down to six brown eggs and ironically my older Pekin per day.

Hmm. Brightpennies and I just couldn't be sure if she was taking the male or female Pekin. I don't think we were wrong, but the female should have been laying already.

Anyway, I have seventeen female birds of laying age. Three I have yet to see an egg from.

Most of mine have stopped completely. The only pen laying moderately well are the younger Rees Legbars. 12 pullets, some days I get 8 eggs, some days just 2, so they are each still laying (on average) 3 eggs per week, not bad for October and no supplemental lighting .

I wonder if for me, this means I won't get any eggs until spring...

 

[BullChick]

I've had new layers in the fall and winter. I won't give up!
I am happy that my Muscovy laid today. I never know if the ducks are taking a break, or laying next door. I guess she was on break. I can't get over a duck laying eggs in a nest box off the floor.

 

[dheltzel]

I wonder if for me, this means I won't get any eggs until spring...

Supplemental lighting is key to getting eggs in the winter. I start adding daylength in December to "hurry" spring a bit, but I let them rest this time of year. I want them to lay well starting in January, for hatching chicks, but I realize some people have a different agenda for their eggs, so you might want to get electricity to your coop, both for lighting and heated water bowls.

I will start with the lights coming on from 6 - 8 AM in mid-Dec, then move the start time back about 30 min per week until it is coming on at 3 AM. On the shortest days, when the sun sets about 5, that will give them about a 14 hour day.

 

[hyzenthlay]

I was feeling bad about my egg haul every day, but I guess my girls aren't doing too bad! I now have 14 chickens and am getting 1-2 eggs per day. BUT, I only have 5 hens of laying age at the moment, and two are laying regularly (barred rock and blue ameraucana), about 4-5 eggs/week. I haven't seen an egg from the other three adults since they molted recently--my blrw is molting now, and is the most pitiful looking molter I've ever had. Large naked patches all over, including her head and bottom--looked like she'd been plucked for dinner, poor thing.

I also took this pic of my OE cockerel and his BCM girlfriend yesterday that I liked and wanted to share:

He's handsome--I'm going to miss him whenever I find him a new home. But he really should go. Yesterday was the first day without the slightly older (and much larger) Brahma cockerel here, and I feel like OE's crowing frequency shot way up. Before it had been less than once per hour (a few crows in a row, then silence for 60-90 minutes or more), but yesterday it felt constant, maybe every 15 minutes or so. I was chasing him around throwing pebbles at his feet to distract him. It seemed like maybe he was filling the power void that the Brahma left, or that he just felt less inhibited.

I decided to leave them in the coop most of the day today, since it's so wet and miserable out. Two main benefits--it'll keep it quieter for our neighbors, and I won't have to leave the dogs outside in the rain all day to help guard the chickens from the hawks. A small hawk, probably a Coopers Hawk, dive bombed our flock TWICE in the last week WHILE we were out working in the yard. Cheeky little jerk. The chickens squawked and the hawk flew off, but I'm not happy about it. And a hawk (maybe the same one) killed two of my neighbor's little pullets she had out in the yard last week, right in the middle of the afternoon, so I think they've been encouraged and emboldened.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

It was lightening last night and was to get a good bit of rain and was under a flood watch. Woke up to not even a drop of rain, but it just started and was raining pretty good and the wind is picking up

 

[OneMountainAcres]

my girls have actually started to pick back up again. I was getting 1 or 2 eggs a day for a while but I got 8 the past couple days