Washingtonians

[chickenjane82]

Jess, you should definitely provide a light if you need eggs through the winter! Yes, it puts more strain on the chickens, but compared to the conditions the hens live in who produce the eggs you used to buy from the store, they will still be in chicken heaven, trust me.

AH! Great point!!! If your going to buy eggs anyway, you may as well supplement your well treated loved birds with light instead.

 

[JennS]

Bleh. I'm so fickle!!!! I still can't decide on supplemental lighting this winter. All my girls are first year pullets but I'm so worried that if I don't supplement that we'll be feeding 11 chickens all winter and still buying eggs. We go through 3.5 dozen eggs a week on average. Right now, that's what we're getting from 7 confirmed layers and 2 that may or may not be laying sporadically, though I don't think they've started at all. I just worry that my poor 14 week olds will technically reach laying age at the end of October and won't actually start due to lack of light until March when they're 8-9 months old! That would royally suck. SOOOO, this is for those on the wet and icky side: DO YOU USE SUPPLEMENTAL LIGHTING? If not, do your first year pullets still lay reliably during the winter as long as they aren't molting?

I've read that hens are like humans in that they are born with all the egg cells they will ever have. Are you planning on keeping them into old age? I'm leaning towards not using any supplemental lighting, so hopefully my girls will lay longer.

Jennifer

 

[JennS]

Is that list supposed to be straight run or pullets from Reber? Gosh, if it's straight run I wouldn't even consider getting any until spring!

Yeah it's straight run. But it doesn't look like I can get any sexed right now, and I would really like to raise my flock from chicks.

Jennifer

 

[TheReidHomestead]

Quote:
Another thing to think about for your experiment, is what latitude your helpers are at. Those farther north have much shorter daylight hours than those say in south Texas or Florida. By December, it will be light here only until about 4:00, dark at 4:30 pm! Same goes for morning hours, still dark at 7:30ish........

 

[JennS]

I can hook you up with Blue Laced Red Wyandottes late winter/early spring!

I would love to get them from a breeder, but I want to start my flock now. Does anyone have any hatching soon?

Jennifer

 

[TheReidHomestead]

Quote:
Royce/Tailfeathers has BARNVELDERS too!!! I had forgotton that!

 

[TheReidHomestead]

Are you sure they are girls?

 

[T Hi]

Ok 30 pages of posts is just way too much for me tonight! This old bag is exhausted!!

Anything important that I missed then just let me know!

 

[T Hi]

Okey dokey! Booger, Blackie & Spot are all settled in at the Puyallup Fair! My DD's and I will be there all day on Saturday and then the afternoon & evening on Sunday! e

 

[TheReidHomestead]

Quote:
I can get you hatching eggs now, but no, not hatching any right away. I will probably start a batch at the end of the month, as I just put my two favorite girls in with my new roo. Very anxious to see what their chicks look like, but one is a pullet who is not quite at the POL, and the other girl needs to be clear of my old roo, so a couple more weeks to go still. And, I'll probably keep that first batch and let them grow out over the winter.