This was the first time in my 20 years of raising laying hens that egg production stopped completely and that they also molted. I must also say that this is the first time that I have had only one breed of hen in the hen house which I think was most of the issue. With 23 girls say all but one being Americana's I guess this is normal. I also now know that when they molt it is like a water fall - all coming at one time. I have been struggling with my sad looking ladies - it makes me want to "Fix" things but time is the only answer. The other day with another wind storm hitting the farm I did not make it out to close up the hen house doors and by the time the wind stopped it looked like there had been a mass murder out in the yard. Feathers everywhere... Hundreds of feathers. The wind had made it's way into the hen house and blew feathers everywhere. I have given up trying to rake them up - I just have to close my eyes to it right now.
This week the hens started to lay but I would get only two or three if I was lucky. I had a talking to them on Wednesday about the cost of feed and amount of work I was doing for them and how it was only fair that they pull their weight. Imagine my surprise on Friday morning when I went into the Hen house and collected a full dozen... I guess my talk worked... I even found two eggs in little plastic dog house that I put into the Hen house so the wind would not take it to Kansas. The two saddest looking hens are using that little house for their slumber chamber and now their nesting box..
THANKS LADIES
4 comments:
Mine took a break when it got so cold and dark - not usual for me as I keep light on in the hen house. Then one day, out of the blue I started finding eggs again. Glad yours are back from vacation!
Sometimes it takes a good talkin' to and then those hens know what's up! Seems like my hens did the same thing just last week. They weren't molting...but they weren't laying, and then they overheard me talking about next fall's butcher list....no kidding, the started laying the next day!
Woohoo!
I'm glad production has picked up at the Funny Farm! Think of it this way, the wind cleaned all those feathers out of the hen house for you, saving you some work! :)
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