Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[cheeka]

JW, maybe, but maybe not... I think they get used to us mookin' around. they're new to this egg laying business so it takes time for regularity to become the norm. I had one drop an egg out in the yard while drinking water, clearly, she wasn't expecting it at that moment... new layers are funny

 

[lindz8504]

Remember this little one from my very first incubator hatch?

I got her back from my aunt yesterday!



Harriet is starting to roost with the babies!


But they think they still need to be under momma!


Peek-a-boo little roo!

 

[chickenlindz]

Oh I'm sooo happy to hear the report on rumples.

 

[tinkershell767]

19 1/2 week old RSLs

 

[mortie]

Scrambles - glad you're back! Good to hear about Rumples! Is she any better otherwise?

Penny made it 3 days in a row this morning! Good girl, Penny!

 

[JW12]

[/IMG]

They are cracking me up wanting in the same nest box! Silly chickens, 7 boxes and they all crowd in. Then as if that isn't enough the ones who aren't laying are nosy as can be, they all try to get in the same area to see what's going on. Then one by one they have to check out the egg. Chicken TV is the best thing to watch!

 

[mortie]

Here is baby Mortie take 1 holding his prize. He was away at grandmas for the weekend when we got our first egg so he got the honors of checking the box this morning. Penny left her calling card in there like a good girl so he was thrilled to make the find.

This one was the biggest yet at 45 grams. I think peewee starts at 43 so this one is at least on the scale lol.

 

[valjean]

Ok, so I still have no eggs to show, but here is a picture of my setup . As you can see, it sits at the edge of the woods, and it faces north. All the trees create a lot of shade. The girls auto door (battery operated, I love love love) opens at 6:45 a.m. They troop back in at 8:00 p.m., as the trees create an earlier sundown for them. They get about 13 hours of light, so is that enough? They free range (supervised) every day for 1-2 hours. Wish it could be more, but the mosquitoes and chiggers are horrendous. You folks who don't have mosquitoes are lucky. But you probably have other things to contend with that I don't.

 

[mortie]

Nice!

My coop is in full shade the majority of the day and it faces east. The west and north faces are next to our privacy fence. I don't have a auto door but I would like one. A battery one might not work here in winter though. The sun is rising here about 5:30 or so and they go to bed around 8. I think people advise 14 hours of daylight. In the winter the sun will rise at 7:30 or so and go down at like 4:30 so we'll see how my girls cope with that. If they quit laying I might just let them be. Frozen eggs are no good to me anyway. You may want to look into supplementing light to see if it's something you want to try. I haven't decided yet but I'm leaning toward no just because my girls will need to expend plenty of their energy just saying warm. Oh - and the skeeters here were HORRIBLE in spring. Thankfully, they've calmed down quite a bit. Couldn't go outside for a minute without being eaten alive. Not. Cool.

 

[mortie]

OH I forgot to mention. The other day I gritted my teeth and replaced the 6 inches or so of water I had out of the tank to try to fix the leaking bulkhead. It took every drop of the 50 gallons of saltwater I had made up, if that tells you anything about the size of my tank. No leaks. I still haven't put everything back to normal as far as putting all the aquascape back in order and the coral back where they go but at least it's not leaking.