I just realized that it's been awhile since I've updated you on the girls and how they're laying. As you know, I decided to NOT add any artificial light this winter, so I was afraid that laying would taper off significantly. And it did at first. At one point, I was down to a trickle of just 1 or 2 eggs a day for a couple of weeks in December\January.
However, we're now consistently getting between 6 and 7 eggs per day from our 9 chooks: 5 Austrolorps and 4 Barred Rocks. That's surprising, and I'm not sure if it's because all 9 are now laying (the Austrolorps were a little slow, I think), or because of the VERY mild winter we've had this year. And gathering the eggs twice a day and making sure they had plenty of shavings in the nesting box seems to have eliminated
my cannibalism issue.
Last weekend, J. and I stopped by Tractor Supply in Independence and picked up a Flock Block to keep the girls busy since they can't be out all the time. Basically, it's a condensed block of molasses, oyster shell, grit, wheat, corn, milo and barley. The idea is that the chickens will peck it and not each other. We'll see if it works or not. They were a little weirded out about it first and ignored it, but I checked this morning and the corners are rounded off, so they've definitely been pecking away at it.
January Egg Total:
89
February Eggs (so far): 40
We're halfway to the total number of eggs we got last month and it's only the 7th! I need to get busy and sell some more eggs at work.
Got chickens? I'd love to hear if you use artificial light during the winter and whether it affects their laying.
Have a glorious day,
0 comments:
Post a Comment