Comments on: Chicken update

By: cristy

cristy — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:16:19 +0000

Along with the drop light mine will free range all day and get feed once a day and I switch food to Layena by Purina Mills And they started laying big beautiful eggs, and if the light is not on at night they will keep making so noise until I turn it on than they go to sleep, it`s like they are scared of the dark.I got to thinking mine didn`t lay much either until I did the light and switch the food and let them stay out longer.

By: Alissa

Alissa — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:38:51 +0000

Do they need to eat more laying pellets? I don’t know alot about chickens but we had about 19 hens at one time several years ago and they ate mostly laying pellets with some yard scavenging and we would get over a dozen eggs a day. Just a thought??

By: cristy

cristy — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:24:57 +0000

I have 8 hens and your right they do need alot of light, we use a drop light and a regular bulb and I plug it in at dark and unplug it in the mornings, and we get anywhere from 5 to 7 eggs a day. Hope the tip works

By: Kelley

Kelley — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:14:04 +0000

I have to second the timer

They need about 12-14 hours of light to lay. Having the light on all night disturbs their sleep, and if you set the timer to stay on into the night, they may not come into their coop before dark. We’ve found having the light come on early in the AM works best for us. The birds fall asleep naturally and are just woken a bit early.

As for broody hens disturbing laying…I haven’t had any problems with this. We have a little silky who goes broody often and she will even share a nest box with another Mama.

Good luck with your chicken adventure!

By: Mrs Bridget G

Mrs Bridget G — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:36:03 +0000

I had 3 baby chicks once. My father found them abandoned in a plastic bag. But they all died before their adult feathers started coming in. The only thing i can deduct is that they had Marek’s Disease, the nerve kind. They became paralyzed and died. I would like chickens again someday.

By: petersonclan

petersonclan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:14:13 +0000

When a hen is broody, and setting on eggs, ALL hens will stop laying. You need the broody ones out of sight of the others. Just wanted to warn you of that so that you can start thinking of where they will be.

By: Shyla

Shyla — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:25:00 +0000

Last April we got some rhode island red chicks (good for laying) that started laying in September. We are getting one egg per day from each of them now, though it did take them awhile to get their hormones straight. We were getting tiny, gigantic, non formed, etc. for awhile. Anyway, if you decide to add to your flock, you should definitely get some rhode island reds if you want more eggs. We kept ours in the pen for a little while, but then started to let them free range. We leave the door open to the pen open during the day and they automatically go back in at night and also lay in the nesting boxes. They stay pretty close to the house as well. We live in the country and have only lost one to coyotes.

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:03:48 +0000

Our chickens do the same thing. The like to live on our porch. The even lay eggs there. It is quite handy to have the eggs right outside the door. But trying to keep the porch clean is not fun. We have chased many a chicken out of our van, too.

By: KimC

KimC — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:47:56 +0000

Tree,
The very best breeds of laying hens can lay 1 egg nearly every day. Most lay about one every other day. Young hens – pullets – often lay just one every third day. I think that’s what ours are doing now.
During the shorter days of winter many hens will stop laying altogether unless you provide extra light for them.

By: Quinn

Quinn — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:21:58 +0000

Ours cut back to just 1-2 a day a month or two ago. We realized that we weren’t really being diligent about the length of light we were supplementing and decided to put it on a timer. Now we’re back up to 6-7 out of 9 hens. It took several weeks to get here though.

The good news is the days start getting longer in a month!