Washingtonians

[SadieSue]

I had 4 laying hens at mid-summer, and was getting 4 eggs a day for a good while. My pullets are almost 24 weeks old. Now, between molting, a mama hen, and shorter days, I'm lucky if I'm getting 2 or 3 eggs a week. None of those doggone pullets are laying yet. Will they start soon or will they wait until spring now since the days are shorter?
Just trying to figure if I need to light the coop. Who lights the coop and what is your preferred method?

I just checked one of my chicken books and because my coop isn't wired it looks like I would have to drill a hole so I can run an outdoor extension cord from the house into the chicken house, which is just a few feet away. And I'm looking at one of those caged, hanging lights in maybe a fluorescent and put a timer on it. Can't remember the name of the light now. Something descriptive. Oy, sounding like such a dummy now, but the most DIY stuff I've done over the years was wield a hammer to hang pictures on the walls. I'm working on it!

I just do NOT want to have to buy any store bought eggs this winter.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Malvina moulted all of a sudden: one day her cage was absolutely full of feathers, but the only way she looked different was that her tail had dropped off. That was about ten days ago, and now she's laying (today, too, yay! because nothing else is).

I'm pretty much wrecked right now- I had to search out and capture every freaking towel we own, which was... neither easy nor pleasant, and neiter was it complete. I did four loads today, and will have to do at least two tomorrow; all of the worn-out towels I use for bovine OB emergencies were mixed in with the good towels- mostly because my daughter likes thin towels to use on her hair, and all of those are washed in hot water and plenty of bleach until they disappear entirely, so they're plenty thin. There's still six towels on the line, but somebody else gets to bring them in: as soon as I put the individual meatloafs in the oven I am clocking out. We have coleslaw, and The Daughter can make her awful instant garlic mashed potatoes herself.

(So of course I got up and made the little meatloafs and put them in the oven and wandered around for a while; I started writing this about 6:15)

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
as I've told a couple other people -- if you use an unusual spelling for a name, be prepared for the child to be frustrated at having to SPELL their name for many many people for the rest of their life

if you pick a name that isn't obvious as to sex, it can be awkward for the child later on

*** now I got loaded with a "family name" which is easy to mispronounce if you see it (almost everyone does), easy to misspell if you hear it, and way too close to an ethnic male name ... wasn't until I was a sophomore in college, going through sorority rush, that I finally switched to a nickname I'd been given back in 5th grade (and I was no longer living at home)

so my boys got fairly common names, and they say they like them

I remember going through roll call at school. When they got to my name, they used my last name rather than try to pronounce Deirdre.

Your name is tricky, no doubt: it has phonemes which do not exist in my brand of English, and no matter how hard I try I can't hear the difference between what I say and what you say- it's like the cot/caught dialect marker, only more annoying.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Oh, yay for getting a buck! I wish somebody in my dwelling unit was a hunter; Dad got a deer every year before he started having diabetic retinopathy, and I miss venison!

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
I would not do it while lactating anyways...

Yeah, me either, could get kinda messy.

Not to mention babies probably don't need radiated milk.

Oh yeah..sticky!!

 

[MadameDork]

Well I had to move the girls up again. At least tonight they were all coddled together in the corner so they were way easy to move. Three were on their baby perch. I put my RIR on the grown up perch and she promptly went to sleep. Only one girl was handing out on the bottom in the shavings. Here's to hoping they figure out where to go when they get hungry in the morning.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
I have herd them called pinto deer. I can not spell toinght!!

I haven't seen one for a long time; there was a herd out at Cape Alava/Ozette Village that had a high number of spotted individuals, and I saw a pinto doe with twin fawns who were sort of white-on-white eating wild crabapples just south of the dig one Labor Day weekend.

The deer stay up on the hill, here; I see them very rarely, although since this is a no-hunting zone they're are a lot of them around right now, and frequent roadkills.

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
I have not visited there, but maybe Illia has, she loves rare breeds.
Maybe she can give you some help or info.

Thank you Cl,
I'm interested in Icelandics also but the escape artists thing has me worried.

Mine have been very good and only 1 has ever escaped..but that was because I had let them out to free range up in the fenced pasture..next thing I know, one is in the front yard.
It is easy sailing from up on the hill down into the front yard area...and as soon as they land they freak & want back in.
So, I have no worries on escape artists.
If they are in their pen, gate closed to the fenced uphill pasture, they have never gotten out.
One more thing I love about the Icess, the Cockerals all get along.
You can (I do) have 5 cockerals & 5 hens, and they all get along like a little family unto themselves, no Cocks fighting at all.
And everyday they get more beautiful.
I have one cockeral, who has a beautiful blue duckwing stripe, just like a mallard duck, gold neck hackle, black body & red/orange saddle hackle.
He is stunning!
A red head with crest!
They have it all!

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
All my coops have lights.
Some have not enough windows, so I have lights run year round.
They NOW come on at 6 AM & shut off by 5PM, which gives the birds a bit of fading daylight to get up & roost.
Some prefer not to light their coops, but let their birds stop laying.
Those are usually in extremely hard winter weather, such as RFF.
Her birds have to deal with such extremes, that she lets them stop laying, and be able to use all their fats for their survival.
Understandibly so!
She gets some COLD COLD weather there.
I do not get such extremes, so I light.
A timer is a great helper...so look into that, and a brooder light, both can be had at Walmart, on an extension cord that is safe and out of rain/wet/dampness.
Your pullets should then lay at 5-6 mo of age.
And guessing, as you did not say what breed they are.

 

[Chickielady]

I absolutely LOVE my avatar I made !
Isn't it awesome?
I may want to keep it!!!
It will always work for Spring~~~~~~~~