Good Morning all!
Just got done feeding the critters outside. The rabbits are going through their hay like no tomorrow! I've been putting off going to
TSC down in Delevan (43mi away-one way!) for their small bale of rabbit hay. I just need to go....I think that will be a good field trip for today.
DrH-I know right! I hate kittens too!! They are evil creatures that lure unsuspecting people in because they act soooo cute and innocent! Then once they have you ensnared, they make you their little kitten slaves. They destroy all the things that you hold dear and tease the dogs because dogs are rather stupid to fall for Evil Kitten Tricks. They keep a person up all night because they can and then sleep all day gearing up for more Evil Deeds to be done at night.....Then some how they get away with it all because they have convinced us that "their just being a cat" !!! God bless cats! They are so cool!
FT- Great finds at
TSC! Just my 2 cents here: Please be care full with the fish food for your chickens. That is a really really "hot" in protein so a little bit will go a long long long way. However, you will get some very nifty feather shine from the fish oils..... Hope my input didn't offend...
TO-When I was a kid, my doctor had huge tank that held a huge Pleco. He was still alive and well when I left his practice at 18. A few years later, I had to go pick up some records that they had found and the Pleco was still there in that tank-21 years atleast. He was about 2 feet long. They finally found him a home at a koi pond place.
BBP-Your pleco could be a dwarf species too. Cind is right about the tank size, although sometimes they still grow out of their tank. If you feed him spirulena (sp) food then he would grow more as long as he is not a dwarf or one of the smaller sized species... Spirulena is like steroids for plecos.
Angie- They should be fine with the treats and still give them the treats, but if they "protest" and want to only eat the bird seed/sprout treats, then you will need to be "mean" and only give them their chicken ration. This will unsure that they are eating a balanced diet.
Some hens scale back in production and some just stop. Sometimes it's breed and sometimes it's just the hen. IMHO, I feel that it is overall more breed then the hen. Although there are stellar layers and poor layers in any breed. Most hens lay well until they are about 2-3. Some breeds lay well for much longer then others and some breeds have short production cycles. Some breeds are just poor layers and suck at it. Like oh say Aseels....
Example: My PR's are laying as are my Barnies but not all of my Barnies are laying. PR's are bred for production so this makes sense to me that I'm still getting eggs from them. The Amaraucana is done until spring as is the Aseel. They are seasonal layers and Aseels are suckie layers to begin with! The Orloffs may give me an egg here and there but I don't expect to see good production till spring from them if I'm lucky. Then they will be close to done for their production life. They knock off laying well (50% loss) after their first year and by 2 they are headed for mature hendom. I have no clue what the Welsummer will do. I've never had one before so I figure I'll let her do her thing and I hope to get eggs in the spring from her.
Hens have a finiate (sp) number of eggs to produce. The reason the egg houses keep their hens on lights 24/7 is to get more then the average number of eggs a day (usually from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 a day). This is hard on the hen so at about 18 months the hens are done/spent and sold off for another purpose. But the way they use the lights is not just the only factor in how early their hens become spent. Stress in the number one reason. Unlike Jim's pampered Pets
, the hen house hens get no fresh air, have no windows, doors, access to run around on the ground and they live in small over crowded conditions. Total stress.
Some home hen keepers who use lights, use them to "extend" the day so to speak. So they might have the hens day start earlier in the winter by putting lights on timers to go on in the early morning, then shut the lights off at dusk so the hens can finish their day normally and roost to sleep. To me this is no different then what happens naturally in the summer months and would not be as harsh on their little hen bodies as what the egg houses do. I don't think that you using lights to extend their day would but to much of a strain on their little bods and hence shorten their production cycle. They still will have sleep, fresh air, excercise, good food and companionship. They also will take a break when they molt regardless of the light-natural or artificial-something the egg house hens never get to do.
My lights are not on timers so my Girls get lights on when I feed. They do get natural light in their run and I make sure that the lights are off be dusk do they can roost. The few times I got home late to turn off the lights, the Girls we doing normal chicken stuff, like dust baths and other daytime activites. I had one Barnie on the nest laying so I waited until she was done. Interestingly, she did not lay until the next day.
The only reason I have lights is for the rabbits. I have the "sun" light lamps for them since I don't have sky lights in the coop area and it is rather dark and gloomy in the coop. This way the rabbits have some form of sum light.
In the spring, I'm half planning on building a rabbitry for them so then next winter the Girls will not have lights in the coop.
TO-My rabbits are in breeding cages in my coop. The hens leave the rabbits alone and like to pick at the hay and scratch through their manure.....composting at it's best!!! I know CC has her bunnies free roaming with her chickens and she has no problems. The reasons I don't do this is that one, I'd have to lay down copious amounts of chicken wire or hardware cloth on the floor of the coop to keep the rabbits from digging out and two I'd have copious amounts of baby rabbits running under foot!!
As far as the pullets go, you may possible get eggs from them but I would expect to see a very limited amount of eggs until spring March/April from them. Then they should produce well until molt.
