The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Also @ AFL (if I may call you that):

She's a pretty bird!

Sure that's fine.....it's much easier to type AFL than armorfirelady lol

And thanks she is just a partridge rock I got off Craig's list a year ago.....my first hens

 

[Scott H]

Tina got done laying her egg and left Oprah standing in the nesting box staring at this egg.....then she got out too.
She was very unhappy being separated so after a couple of hours of the relative warmth of the coop she's back out doin' her thing.

 

[TeaChick]

Sure that's fine.....it's much easier to type AFL than armorfirelady lol

And thanks she is just a partridge rock I got off Craig's list a year ago.....my first hens

Thanks. =)

Oh, well, she's beautiful. I particularly like the dark coloring. Seems much more natural to me (although I guess white would be natural in the snow, so...) But I think she's pretty.

 

[TeaChick]

Tina got done laying her egg and left Oprah standing in the nesting box staring at this egg.....then she got out too.
She was very unhappy being separated so after a couple of hours of the relative warmth of the coop she's back out doin' her thing.

I've never had two hens in the nesting box at the same time. In fact, I've had them run out of the bottom level b/c of me looking in the top level and forgetting to check the bottom first. lol Well, they weren't laughing, but I thought it was funny to see them run squawking out of the nesting box, around the coop to the door and out.

 

[armorfirelady]

Give it time tea hick I am sure you will have 2 or more in a nesting box sooner or later

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Quote: Haha, yeah.

 

[TeaChick]

Haha, yeah.

Well, when things slow down, let us know what you've been up to and how things are.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Quote: Okay, will do.

 

[Scott H]

Give it time tea hick I am sure you will have 2 or more in a nesting box sooner or later

When Tina was broody it happened all the time. Oprah would crawl in, lay an egg, make broody Tina happy. Got another box....3 chickens and two nesting boxes...sheesh.

 

[TeaChick]

When Tina was broody it happened all the time. Oprah would crawl in, lay an egg, make broody Tina happy. Got another box....3 chickens and two nesting boxes...sheesh.

I have nine hens. One of them hasn't laid at all (my Bantam Cochin Frizzle) and one (my brood hen, my JG) I don't think has gotten back to it with moving here, getting sick, changing food, changing sleeping arrangements, etc, and my Leghorns are being very slow about getting back to it; my Comets are now laying almost as if nothing ever happened.
Anyway, with seven laying hens (sounds like a Christmas song lol), I have a two level communal nesting corner which could accommodate 4-6 hens if necessary; however, they all lay (one at a time, so far) in the lower level only. I've only had two or three eggs laid in the top level and I think they're not laying on the back porch anymore (I haven't gotten one there for a few days).
Anyway, it seems like there's not much point in having more than one or two nesting boxes.