Chickens...

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inkjunkie

inkjunkie

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Wife has been talking about getting chickens....again. We were getting eggs from Linda. Her chickens stopping producing eggs back in November. Seems like her chickens don't produce eggs more than they do. To hot, to cold, to sunny, not sunny enough, to much daylight....not enough daylight..
This just the particular breed of chickens she has? One breed less apt to have this problem than another?
 
I've tried 4 different breeds. Seems that they start eating their eggs between 2-3 years, and then you get no more. I have a coop of 22 or so right now that I'm about to slaughter, they are just under 2 years old and this winter they started eating all their eggs. This is the 4th breed/time this has happened.

While they are producing eggs, it's great. Fresh eggs do taste better. Selling the eggs pays for food, and they help control the bug population. Once they start eating their eggs.....they are expensive, unpleasant pets.
 
When I was growing up we had Barred Rock hens.
They produce a large brownish shelled egg and has darker yellow yolk. Sometimes we would have eggs with 2 yolks in them.
They are a pretty sociable chickens too ( except for the rooster he was a sob!)
We had a pretty large chicken house it was an old wood storage building
maybe 16'x16'. So we had a lot of room for raised nesting boxes and a large fenced chicken run area. Sometimes my mom would let them out and run around the yard. Surprisingly our dogs wouldn't bother them.

We'd feed them cracked corn and other stuff. Oh we'd get grit for them and it had ground oyster shell in it for calcium to help the egg shell to be harder.

We would collect eggs early in in morning.

We never had a problem with them eating their own eggs that I remember.

If I remember right they would have lax laying periods like around the times when they would molt. I think winter they would slow down laying too.
 
My grandpa had a remedy for egg eating hens.
He'd get out early and collect the eggs, he'd place golf balls in their place. Said the chickens would get hurt beaks from pecking at golf balls.
I used to think it was funny when he'd tell me his hens had sore peckers!
 
gunbunny said:
My grandpa had a remedy for egg eating hens.
He'd get out early and collect the eggs, he'd place golf balls in their place. Said the chickens would get hurt beaks from pecking at golf balls.
I used to think it was funny when he'd tell me his hens had sore peckers!
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We tried ceramic eggs. Damn things really look like the real thing. Didn't help.
 
ToMang07 said:
We tried ceramic eggs. Damn things really look like the real thing. Didn't help.
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He had a couple other things he'd do. Blow an egg and fill with dish soap and food coloring. He'd at least know who the guilty party was. If he didn't break them, then there was the fry pan!
 
Any of the sex links are good breeds. If chickens are eating eggs then they most likely stressed or overcrowded. The white leghorn is the best but they can really fly.
 
@ToMang07
@norshorblufish @gunbunny @Lelo Dart

Thanks for the input. Ernestina was talking to a friend who had chickens....Belinda told Ernie that theirs stopped producing. Decided to turn them into chicken parmigian, chicken enchiladas etc. Said the meat was EXTREMELY tough. This normal or were her birds perhaps tough because of age?

Again, thank you folks for your input...
 
inkjunkie said:
@ToMang07
@norshorblufish @gunbunny @Lelo Dart

Thanks for the input. Ernestina was talking to a friend who had chickens....Belinda told Ernie that theirs stopped producing. Decided to turn them into chicken parmigian, chicken enchiladas etc. Said the meat was EXTREMELY tough. This normal or were her birds perhaps tough because of age?

Again, thank you folks for your input...
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Yeah, even young-ish birds tend to be tough, even if you free-range them. Best for stripping the meat and crock-pot or stew meat.
 
Old hens are NOTHING like supermarket chicken. Meat chickens grow so fast that they must be harvested before maturity. Too heavy to hold themselves up or fluid in the body cavity. They act more like pigs then chickens.
 
gunbunny said:
My grandpa had a remedy for egg eating hens.
He'd get out early and collect the eggs, he'd place golf balls in their place. Said the chickens would get hurt beaks from pecking at golf balls.
I used to think it was funny when he'd tell me his hens had sore peckers!
Click to expand...
:lol:
 
when raising them from biddies and they start pecking the feathers out of each other need to feed them oyster shells
 
inkjunkie said:
@ToMang07
@norshorblufish @gunbunny @Lelo Dart

Thanks for the input. Ernestina was talking to a friend who had chickens....Belinda told Ernie that theirs stopped producing. Decided to turn them into chicken parmigian, chicken enchiladas etc. Said the meat was EXTREMELY tough. This normal or were her birds perhaps tough because of age?

Again, thank you folks for your input...
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Hey Doug,up in AL. where we hunt, the farmer there told us that when laying chickens are past there prime, that they would go to processors to be used in Campbell soups. He said they are so tough that's all their good for.
 
Someone say something about chickens?

IMG_1587.JPG
 
I had Black Australorp (sp) chickens years ago and always had more eggs than needed. You couldn't have given me one of those darn, into everything Leghorns.
Yote
 
I have never had any chickens eat their eggs. They do moult and during that time which may last for months they do not lay eggs. Moulting will start near the end of the 1st year. They lay eggs good for about 3 years then start slowing down. They do not lay eggs till they are about 6 months old.
 
gunbunny said:
My grandpa always had a bunch of chickens! But nothing like that! Do they get up into the woodline?
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They LOVE the woods!! We have 2 barns, below is a satellite pic, the barn on the right always has more chickens that go out because the woods are closer. Open the doors and they jump out and run for the woods!! If I ever sell this farm and start another I'd consider buying one that's mostly woods and put the barns smack in the center of the woods.

IMG_1588.PNG
 
gunbunny said:
No problems with coyotes?
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Not unless some chickens stay out at night. We've had coyotes and coons haul off with dead chickens at night. Trapped 5 coons and a possum so far. Got a snare set in a coyote crossing under the fence but haven't had any luck there yet.
 
75slant6 said:
Not unless some chickens stay out at night. We've had coyotes and coons haul off with dead chickens at night. Trapped 5 coons and a possum so far. Got a snare set in a coyote crossing under the fence but haven't had any luck there yet.
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I forgot about coons! My grandpa hated those SOB's! We never really had a treeline close to the livestock. We did lose a few chickens and ducks to fox and coyote's. The coons would get into the barn and raid the eggs or get a chick. Wo be to the critter that got into live traps. They often were tossed into the pond while still in the trap. The only way that didn't happen was when pelt prices were up.
 
gunbunny said:
I forgot about coons! My grandpa hated those SOB's! We never really had a treeline close to the livestock. We did lose a few chickens and ducks to fox and coyote's. The coons would get into the barn and raid the eggs or get a chick. Wo be to the critter that got into live traps. They often were tossed into the pond while still in the trap. The only way that didn't happen was when pelt prices were up.
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Yea I hate coons with a passion!! Those suckers meet the business end of a .22
 
Buff Opringtons, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Ameraucanas (green eggs) - all pretty good layers - I think if you make sure they get the right amount of light (12 hours?) you should get eggs pretty much year round. We don't worry about it a lot - we get a couplathree eggs a days when they're taking some time off, and 18-24 eggs a day when they're in a laying mood...have your friends/neighbors start saving cartons for you!
 
75slant6 said:
Yea I hate coons with a passion!! Those suckers meet the business end of a .22
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Coons? Get a Coon Hound...ours, even though never trained came from champion hunters/show dogs. Have treed all sorts of stuff...lol...
64DartGTinAZ said:
Buff Opringtons, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Ameraucanas (green eggs) - all pretty good layers - I think if you make sure they get the right amount of light (12 hours?) you should get eggs pretty much year round. We don't worry about it a lot - we get a couplathree eggs a days when they're taking some time off, and 18-24 eggs a day when they're in a laying mood...have your friends/neighbors start saving cartons for you!
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If we decide to get chickens cartons won't be a problem...we routinely take dozens of them to the recycling center.
My transmission buddy in AZ, Doug....his Dad had a small chicken farm. I remember him telling me how to get them to produce year round. Don't remember exactly what he said anymore....had something to do with enough light...and a certain something in the diet....he did tell me that some folks claim that it is best to just let nature dictate when they will produce....
 
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