- Jun 20, 2017
- 97
- 32
- 122
Hi all! Right now I have 8 hens. 5 (1 ISA Brown, 3 Ameraucanas, 2 RIR) of the 8 are about 3 years, 1 (Olive Egger) is 1 1/2 years and the last one (Easter Egger) about 10 months. The 3 year olds and 1 1/2 were clearly molting and egg production slowly came to a halt. However, my ISA Brown was laying up until about 10 days ago. She has always been a good layer and I have never had egg production completely stop during the winter. I would think my 1 1/2 year Easter Egger would still be laying once and awhile??? Is this common? My second issue, is that (and I don't recall this happening in the summer) my 1 1/2 yr old Olive Egger and 10 month old Easter Egger have choose to roost on top of the coops, not in the coops with the others. I have a 10x10 dog kennel with 2 coops inside with an attached 10x20 run. I scoot them off and direct them into the coop where the others sleep. Sounds pretty wild in there and they must pick on them. The Olive Egger comes right out and goes into the other coop. I thought the Easter Egger was staying the in the coop with the others, but when I came out, she was back on top of the coop. I scooted her down again and directed her into the other coop and shut the door. She kind of freaked out, tried to fly, knocked down the roosting bar and eventually after many attempts, went into the coop. Summertime I wouldn't really worry about this, but our MN winters can get pretty cold. If I am out of town and we get one of our 30 degree below nights, I'm worried they won't go into one of the coops to protect themselves. But not sure I should lock them in either. I like to have 2 heated water sources on 2 different outlets in case one goes out. They wouldn't have access to both. Is there something I can staple to nail to the tops of the coops that would keep them from roosting up there? Any suggestions?
