Question on chickens -Ameraucana

[dun]

Our egg production dropped from 10 eggs to 2 eggs per day with 12 hens. Forced the wife to put light bulb in the coop, just a 13 watt curly bulb now she's getting 10 eggs a day. It took 3 weeks to kick in.

Her auracana cross raised on the farm (5th generation ) start laying at 4 months and are very very broody. They are all free range, cow pie scratching fools.

WOW, light, who ever would have figured?

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

A hen is born with all the eggs she is going to lay. Surely you have seen the coiled up trail of yokes in chicken repro tract. I think a light might "burn " them out quicker though. I have fought the light thing with my wife for years.

 

[dun]

A hen is born with all the eggs she is going to lay. Surely you have seen the coiled up trail of yokes in chicken repro tract. I think a light might "burn " them out quicker though. I have fought the light thing with my wife for years.

If they are yard birds and you never have to feed them letting them slide and only lay seasonaly and as the age lay fewer and fewer and further apart I don;t figure they're is any problem with them being more pets then producers. But at the cost of feed, if you don;t get the maximum out of them that dozen eggs gets pretty pricey. We used to use the light in the winter then in late winter darken the hen house to almost total dark and force them to molt. After the molt they woudl start laying again and at the end of the second year we got rid of them and the new ones we had gotten were starting into production. The Bantys and Silkys were just yard birds and let them lay as they wanted and set and hatch a brood when they wanted. The silkys were great for hatching pheasents under. The varmints always kept the total number of yard birds to a minimum.

 

[Bestoutwest]

To me that's just like calling my traditional baldies a Black Hereford.

Are we going to have that argument here? Please don't.

Our chickens quit laying in October~ish as they started to molt. I had the wife take them in to be slaughtered. They came free with the coup, so we had no idea how old they were and the processing fee to have them killed was cheap enough. In the spring we'll get some chics and start over. We're looking to do just egg layers, so what kinds would you suggest? Rhode Island Reds? It gets hot, hot, hot here and decently cold in the winter.

 

[slick4591]

You have three choices of chickens: Meat birds, dual purpose and production. Can't go wrong with dual purpose and RIR are good layers. I like a bird that not only looks good but can serve both purposes. I raise primarily Sliver Laced Wyandottes (brown eggs), Marans (chocolate eggs) and Ameraucanas (blue/green eggs). My eggs customers love the different colors and my Wyandottes and Marans bring top money selling chicks and mature birds.

 

[dun]

I would go with one of the sex-linked types. They may cost a bit more but you'll end up with all hens and no cockrels.

 

[Alan]

I also like the dual purpose, but we only have enough chickens to supply eggs for my wife and I and give the extra eggs away to family and friends. I know it gets cold and very hot in all of Idaho, but as long as they have water and shade they should be fine. We have always had the traditional dual breeds and had good luck with them. RIR, Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, etc. although the last couple of times we raised chicks we have gotten to like the egg production from white Leghorns, I think they will lay 30 or 40% more eggs than dual breed. But again we have 5 birds for two of us, eggs only. As Dun stated you don't have egg layers to save money, I figure our eggs cost us 4 to 5 dollars a dozen, included the price of the coop and repairs, i don't want to think about it. Plus in our area free range birds won't last the night between the Hawks, Eagles, coons and yotes. I have a neighbor a couple of miles away that never learns, seems there is a pile of feathers across the road from their place three or four times a week.

 

[3waycross]

I also like the dual purpose, but we only have enough chickens to supply eggs for my wife and I and give the extra eggs away to family and friends. I know it gets cold and very hot in all of Idaho, but as long as they have water and shade they should be fine. We have always had the traditional dual breeds and had good luck with them. RIR, Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, etc. although the last couple of times we raised chicks we have gotten to like the egg production from white Leghorns, I think they will lay 30 or 40% more eggs than dual breed. But again we have 5 birds for two of us, eggs only. As Dun stated you don't have egg layers to save money, I figure our eggs cost us 4 to 5 dollars a dozen, included the price of the coop and repairs, i don't want to think about it. Plus in our area free range birds won't last the night between the Hawks, Eagles, coons and yotes. I have a neighbor a couple of miles away that never learns, seems there is a pile of feathers across the road from their place three or four times a week.

Ever raise any light Brahmas. Great birds, big ole heavy hens though/

 

[MO_cows]

I also like the dual purpose, but we only have enough chickens to supply eggs for my wife and I and give the extra eggs away to family and friends. I know it gets cold and very hot in all of Idaho, but as long as they have water and shade they should be fine. We have always had the traditional dual breeds and had good luck with them. RIR, Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, etc. although the last couple of times we raised chicks we have gotten to like the egg production from white Leghorns, I think they will lay 30 or 40% more eggs than dual breed. But again we have 5 birds for two of us, eggs only. As Dun stated you don't have egg layers to save money, I figure our eggs cost us 4 to 5 dollars a dozen, included the price of the coop and repairs, i don't want to think about it. Plus in our area free range birds won't last the night between the Hawks, Eagles, coons and yotes. I have a neighbor a couple of miles away that never learns, seems there is a pile of feathers across the road from their place three or four times a week.

Ever raise any light Brahmas. Great birds, big ole heavy hens though/

Those are on my "short list" to try. The feathered feet hold me back, ours get in every mud puddle and fresh cow pie so I have stuck with "clean legged" breeds. Do they go broody?

 

[3waycross]

Ever raise any light Brahmas. Great birds, big ole heavy hens though/[/quote]

Those are on my "short list" to try. The feathered feet hold me back, ours get in every mud puddle and fresh cow pie so I have stuck with "clean legged" breeds. Do they go broody?[/quote]

I guess so. My grandma had em in Missouri when i was a kid. Beautiful birds

 

[M5farm]

I keep a few Game hens. To many foxes, owls, eagles and hawks to let them roam.

 

[greybeard]

Yall got me wanting some chickens--got an old covered dog pen I haven't used in years, and one of them wheeled 'chicken tractors' but this sounds like a spring project. Besides, both my nearest neighbor and my youngest older sister keeps us supplied with eggs.

I done tried the geese adventure--nasty things can't waddle 2 steps without shooting a stream of goose poop 2 ft behind them, and I couldn't keep 'em off the porch. Laid some nice big eggs, but that drew every snake within 50 miles and I just don't like serpents of any kind.

 

[dun]

Yall got me wanting some chickens--got an old covered dog pen I haven't used in years, and one of them wheeled 'chicken tractors' but this sounds like a spring project. Besides, both my nearest neighbor and my youngest older sister keeps us supplied with eggs.

I done tried the geese adventure--nasty things can't waddle 2 steps without shooting a stream of goose poop 2 ft behind them, and I couldn't keep 'em off the porch. Laid some nice big eggs, but that drew every snake within 50 miles and I just don't like serpents of any kind.

Years ago I hatched goose eggs for a neighbor, the pay was half of the goslings that hatched. I talked to the eggs everyday the last week or so before they hatched and they all imprinted on me. Was kind of (after cleaning the porch) to go to feed and have a dozen geese following along like dogs. I found geese to be the easiest to imprint. Chicken and ducks come next. Quail a little bit but pheaseants are almost as quick to do it as geese. Turkeys NEVER!

 

[greybeard]

I have to talk to eggs?
Ok, I'm done with it..

 

[dun]

I have to talk to eggs?
Ok, I'm done with it..

It;s neat. You can really tell the difference between chicks/goslings/ducklings/etc that have been imprinted with your voice.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Alan, we've got 30 or so hens. I weeded out some of the senior ladies recently, so most are 1-3 yrs. old. We have RIR, Ameraucana, two varieties of sex link, a couple varieties of Marans, Leghorns, Cream Legbar (very rare!), something else (? can't remember) and some mutts. We can't control the molt (a friend of mine calls it "the melt"), but we figured out the extra lighting thing last year. We have a small watt bulb -- 13 watt I think -- that's on a timer to go on at 4:00 and off at 8:00, AM and PM. Chickens are not the Creator's brightest creation . . . that little bit of light makes them think there's sunshine. We've got it mounted above our walk-in/man door, so they aren't likely to crash into it. It doesn't kick up production to summertime levels, but its a helluva lot better than feeding 30 hens for 4 eggs a day. And yes, the "Easter Eggers" have slowed down alot more than the other girls for winter. We can't free-range ours for the same reasons you can't free-range yours. They have a big coop, and an outside run with 6 ft. tall fence. We lock 'em up every night -- but if we don't get them right at end of dusk, we expect losses from big owls. We have -0- interest in butchering birds; when we cull, we find them a "good home" (yeah, right . . . freezer camp), or swap out 5 or 6 for a couple of younger ones.

 

[chippie]

I have quite a few hens. The breed of the chicken determines the color of the egg.
Most breeds egg production starts slowing down when the hen reaches 1 1/2 years old. It takes 24 to 36 hours for a hen to lay an egg.
Yes, the amount of daylight hours effect production. Since Dec 21 the days are getting longer and my hens' production is increasing. Before Christmas I was getting between 9 to 12 eggs today. I am now getting over 30.
My hens run free, but I feed them well during the winter months. They have access to a bale of alfalfa which they love, and I feed either Purina Layena or Nutrena laying pellets plus grain. They also get our extra milk.
I have Leghorns, Ideal 236, Naked Necks, Rhode Island Red, Production Red, Americana, home grown mixed, and quite a few Bantams. I lost a lot of birds last year due to raccoons, opossums, and coyotes.