Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[Wishing4Wings]

..............A mutilated pumpkin was found at the scene. It appears that the suspect known only as Roger wasn't interested in sharing a 35 pound pumpkin with roommates who also reside there. Apparently the suspect named Roger has refused to cooperate with the investigation. Numerous feathers of different species were also present at the scene. Investigation is ongoing so stay tuned for updates.

Ha! Roger could have the whole pumpkin to herself at my house. Dad-blamed-ungrateful-rassen-frassen-fussy spoiled chickens.

Wasting a perfectly good pumpkin.

 

[cheeka]

Live over the wires: we are experiencing a similar pattern of Pumpkin slaughter in the Helderberg escarpment, a woodland area of the Northern Catskills. The remains of another 35 lb pumpkin was discovered early yesterday morning. The victim had been completely disemboweled. No trace of innards could be found at the scene. The victim had also been dashed into several small pieces by forces unknown. These were discovered buried inches below the surface and covered with leaves. The area residents could not be coaxed into commenting. Perhaps your investigative skills could be put into use here. We heard you were having success with attaining cooperation from the usual suspects, we really need your help and would be willing to share our resources and discoveries with your team of experts. SOP! (Save Our Pumpkins!)

FOUR

FOUR... Today we laid Four!!!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Live over the wires: we are experiencing a similar pattern of Pumpkin slaughter in the Helderberg escarpment, a woodland area of the Northern Catskills. The remains of another 35 lb pumpkin was discovered early yesterday morning. The victim had been completely disemboweled. No trace of innards could be found at the scene. The victim had also been dashed into several small pieces by forces unknown. These were discovered buried inches below the surface and covered with leaves. The area residents could not be coaxed into commenting. Perhaps your investigative skills could be put into use here. We heard you were having success with attaining cooperation from the usual suspects, we really need your help and would be willing to share our resources and discoveries with your team of experts. SOP! (Save Our Pumpkins!)

FOUR

FOUR... Today we laid Four!!!

Now I know where Spike disappeared all day!!!

ZERO we laid -0-

today....

 

[okallthis4eggs]

SIX

SIX.......Today we laid a HALF DOZEN.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hey Johny how many hens do you have? Do they get to free range? Are they kept with other fowl? Any way, hens will slow down egg production this time of year, usually more into the shorter days, I once noticed a slow down in production, and then saw broken shells and some egg in nests. With all I read about egg eaters...I thought oh no. Because little eenie was always in the coop, and i caught her eating some. Well, I couldn't understand why she would eat eggs s I separated her in an open broody box. After a week she had a tidy clean nest with five eggs in it. Hmmm. The loss continued until one evening when I almost collected a ginormous rat snake, totally involved in gulping down eggs. The coop was tight, but I had been leaving the door open for sunshine and fresh air during the day. Either way, it had to be fed to the buzzards, and i keep the door closed. The chickens don't have a ramp, they hop out the pop door onto a stump, 2 feet up. I was surprised but happy to find it before he got under a broody hen. Plus I keep the grass really short, snakes don't like to travel in the open if they can help it. But anyway, are your hens combs nice and red? Any competition for food? I guess you have to examine your flock and keep looking for the problem.

Thanks! 5 hens and a roo, I had many the same thoughts, we have huge ratsnakes, kingsnakes etc.. lots of snakes here.... I really think it was my daughters "oops" on the food. She was feeding allstock to them when Mom was in the hospital. (12% protein) she didn't realize it was different feed, bag looked the same to her.

They all look super healthy aside from that. I have been giving extra mealies n yogurt to get a boost back to the regular protein intake. One thing i did notice is my BPR whose comb is usually almost blood red had turned pink, that tipped me off about the food. Will try and get some new pics and upload. But am thinking that long with low protein has an effect with the laying, it was almost 3 weeks. They free range from around 11 am to an hour before dark - 6pm right now. they are around all my other birds, and visit the pigs and alpaca daily too. but this is all the norm... I range everyone together. I have some agressive Embden geese that range with them, (raised together as chicks and goslings) and guineas that will shred a snake in a second. My barn cats wont touch my birds, but they also eat the snakes. The guineas live with the chickens in the coop. so no rodent or snake stands a chance in there. One of the Guinea hens thinks she is broody and wont leave the coop. Vicious little monster to anything dare enter.. she has a handful of golfballs that really will hatch any day now

.But if my girls don't start laying soon, i will park myself in there and start watching. I am retired, so at home at day, and I'd rather be out with my birds anyways!

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Didn't get home tonight until dark-thirty. While locking up, I checked the coop with a flashlight and counted 10 girls.

Someone was MISSING and that someone was Spot!

Heard a little huuurrrrr coming from the nest box and found her there

along with 2 more eggs which I promptly grabbed. But Spot just stood there making that huuurrrr noise. Standing. In the nest box. I pet her and talked to her, but she just stood there.

I was starting to worry that something bad had happened to her, acting so strange and huuurrrrring, and not on the roost with her buds. Then I began to suspect what was going on.

Sure enough, with another little huuurrr, the egg she was laying dropped out!

I guess I wasn't expecting that since it was after dark. Now I'm wondering why we say "laying eggs" when it really is more like "dropping eggs"!

So with that last egg we reached a total of 7 for today!

I also can report that Belle the Slayer of Skunks has happily returned from exile.

She is accompanied by her faithful squire, Scooter the Pest.

Part of the squire's duty is to assist Belle with her training. He plays the role of the skunk.





Scooter makes a very good skunk!!

 

[cheeka]

awwwww W4W, I love those pics! Scooter is so darling, and they look so cute together! Congrats on the 7th egg - so cool you got to watch. mine make the same hurrrrrrrin' noise in the next box, I always interpreted as Senor Mences "Close the Door" imitation...
it's so mild this morning, no ice in the waterers, no eggs yet either, but both Blu and Isis were busy nesting. Wilma decided I couldn't hear her, she must be taking lessons from Roger, she's got the peacock call down pat. I'm sure her shrieking carried down the hill for miles... Chicken Protection Services are expected later today

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Oh! Jchny, right! I Had read your post on the feed but got confused...as to who posted it! My page turning is a slow thing depending on cloud cover. But yeah, the alpaca food is definetely to blame. The should be back on schedule in another week. Sounds like you have some interesting critters! Gotta love critters.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Here's an interesting thing. Quite awhile ago I read a thread in the meat bird section about fermenting feed...(since nutrition came up) so I thought...hmmmm. studied up on it and read agriculture articles on silage etc....so have been fermenting scratch grains for over a year...my chickens do great on this formula...and its pretty easy to do. I've noticed great feathering, and better eggs, that surprise don't seem to have much sulfa in them, and produce less gas when eaten-ask my dogs...haha. Lately I have added whole corn to the mix, I give that an extra day of fermenting. My chicens go nuts for it, they eat less of it and there is less waste as smaller grains adsorb water, swell, and get seen and eaten instead of disappearing. The fermentng sort of predigests the feed, releases probiotics and increases protein and vitamin contents. Chickens don't have a 'prestomach, like rudimentary animals, but the crop does hold food that naturally begins to ferment ( saw it first hand after opening a wild turkey crop to see what it had been eating....some of my corn I noticed) but anyhow, after my bucket was buried in snow for several days and i just fed scratch, they practically assaulted me when I finally got over to the fermenting stuff. They had managed to get the lid off the bucket, but didn't go bobbing for the grains. It does taste much better too.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Great pics w4w they sure look like best friends.