Eggs

[Davarm]

This time of year our chickens slow down their laying dramatically. We have 25 hens and dropped down to about 3-4 Eggs a day.

I got rid of all the "extra" roosters, turned on the florescent lights and started feeding sunflower seeds as a supliment and after about 3 weeks were now up to around two dozen eggs a day.

Thought I'd ask what others did to increase egg production.

 

[Double R]

Holy cow! That’s great!
So fluorescent lights not heat lamp?
What’s the sunflower seeds for??

We just put a heat lamp on a timer during winter and it increases our egg numbers. We don’t get super cold though.

 

[Davarm]

Holy cow! That’s great!
So fluorescent lights not heat lamp?
What’s the sunflower seeds for??

We just put a heat lamp on a timer during winter and it increases our egg numbers. We don’t get super cold though.

The sunflower seeds add a little fat to the diet and they love em.

It hasn't gotten cold enough yet for heat lamps here but I have them in the coop ready to turn on when needed.

I've heard that the hens think it's summer with the lights on and it seems to work...

 

[Double R]

Good to know!
I can see the sunflower seeds working. That’s why I eat them. Might be a fight between me and the chickens though

 

[UncleJoe]

Our egg production always goes down as the days get shorter. We're down to about a half dozen a day from 45-50 hens. We have a light in the coop but don't turn it on to extend the day. That gives them a break and by late February, production starts going back up.

 

[robin416]

I'm like UncleJoe when it comes to adding lights during the break time for the girls. That's the time they regain what they used up producing eggs during the longer days of egg laying.

 

[Terri9630]

Holy cow! That’s great!
So fluorescent lights not heat lamp?
What’s the sunflower seeds for??

We just put a heat lamp on a timer during winter and it increases our egg numbers. We don’t get super cold though.

It's not the heat that helps with the eggs laying. It's the light. They need a certain amount of light to stimulate them to lay.

 

[Redbeard]

I light my birds on a timer. No added heat. My hens lay perfectly. Sun flower seeds are good to feed year round they contain a pile of vitamins and other good things for birds. The only thing lighting your birds does do is it will stop their laying a little bit early from their laying expectancy. It makes zero difference in the health of the bird. All mine that stop laying either sit on eggs for me or they get turned into crockpot birds. And by stop laying early i mean it is barely noticeable.

 

[robin416]

I light my birds on a timer. No added heat. My hens lay perfectly. Sun flower seeds are good to feed year round they contain a pile of vitamins and other good things for birds. The only thing lighting your birds does do is it will stop their laying a little bit early from their laying expectancy. It makes zero difference in the health of the bird. All mine that stop laying either sit on eggs for me or they get turned into crockpot birds. And by stop laying early i mean it is barely noticeable.

Well, I've got two girls that could argue a couple of your points. Both are 8 years old now, both still lay intermittently. It appears they lay more steadily in the Spring/Summer months but at 8 they still lay. I have another that is 6 that still lays pretty consistently.

 

[Redbeard]

Well, I've got two girls that could argue a couple of your points. Both are 8 years old now, both still lay intermittently. It appears they lay more steadily in the Spring/Summer months but at 8 they still lay. I have another that is 6 that still lays pretty consistently.

That's actually pretty common and i don't think argues my points. I have hens in that age group still laying. Maybe only one or two eggs a week but still laying. Like i said the effects of lighting on their long term egg production is very minimal. And as far as health well i will put my birds up against anyones. I have been raising chickens this way for 30 years, never had an issue.

 

[Meerkat]

We never used light on our hens and they lay all year round now of course here we don't have long deep freeze cold winters either. They slow down laying at times but we figure that is just nature.
Right now we don't have any hens at all. Plan on getting more in the spring. Our shade trees were getting too much nitrogen so we gave hens away so ground could rest after 20 years of chickens, ducks free ranging all over fenced in yard. They liked staying under the trees all summer.
Plus we needed a break from so much going on, we are old and no family within hundreds of miles. Don't want to put family to work when they visit. Sometimes of course they do help.

 

[Kansas Terri]

Now that the kids are grown I no longer bother with lights: whatever they lay is good enough for the 2 of us.

Excepting the hens were all getting old and last summer we lost 2 due to natural causes, so I bought 4 female chicks. We now have eggs coming out of our ears!!!!!!!!!!

The middle aged hens stop laying in the winter until January, when the days start getting longer and then the hens start laying again. The pullets, though, tend to lay right on through their first winter which can be too much of a good thing.

 

[marlas1too]

If you hand a shaded light about 12-14 inches off the floor of the coop and leave it on the light will attract bugs and the chickens will love the extra protein and your eggs will be richer tasting and don't forget to put a screen on the bottom of the shade s the light wont be broken or burn the chickens

 

[Redbeard]

If we didn't light we would have zero eggs. Cold winter and short days make sure of that. Good idea on the light for attracting bugs. During the summer i put pig butchering scraps in a bucket that hangs from the ceiling. It has holes about and inch big drilled around the bottom at about an inch from the bottom. Doesn't take long for the maggots to form then they fall out of the bucket and the birds chow down.

 

[Double R]

If we didn't light we would have zero eggs. Cold winter and short days make sure of that. Good idea on the light for attracting bugs. During the summer i put pig butchering scraps in a bucket that hangs from the ceiling. It has holes about and inch big drilled around the bottom at about an inch from the bottom. Doesn't take long for the maggots to form then they fall out of the bucket and the birds chow down.

That’s genius! Going to try the scraps from the ceiling!!!

 

[Double R]

If you hand a shaded light about 12-14 inches off the floor of the coop and leave it on the light will attract bugs and the chickens will love the extra protein and your eggs will be richer tasting and don't forget to put a screen on the bottom of the shade s the light wont be broken or burn the chickens

Going to do this! What a good idea! Makes perfect sense but would never have thought about doing this! My chickens thank you!

 

[marlas1too]

:thumbs up:

 

[Sunshine]

I read somewhere that chickens , like us humans, only have a certain amount of eggs... So yes you would get more in the winter, stimulating them to lay more with light, but they would stop laying all the sooner when they reach that point.

 

[VenomJockey]

May be a dumb question, but nobody ever accused me of being a genius.....for an isolated retreat with many large predators roaming around, which would be better: DUCKS, or CHICKENS? Used for both egg production and food, and will they STAY in a large fenced in area, or are they going to be all over the place?

 

[Weedygarden]

I have been watching a youtube channel of a family who moved from Florida to Arkansas this past spring. They decided to get ducks and geese, but not chickens. Recently they did a video and said if they had it to do over again, they would have gotten chickens. The ducks and geese take much longer to start laying eggs. If they had gotten chickens, they would have gotten eggs much sooner.

 

[goshengirl]

We don't bother with lights in the winter. Egg production goes down, and we adjust our consumption accordingly. Fortunately, we're not dependent on our girls' eggs - we can pick some up at the store if we need to (like for the extra baking around the holidays). Of course, we do look forward to our girls increasing their production.

We just prefer to stick to natural cycles when we can. Which isn't a criticism for folks who use lights. It's just what works for us.

 

[Terri9630]

We went with chickens because we like chicken. I think ducks are gross. To greasy. Go with what you like because you can pretty well count on half of every Hatch being male. You don't need more than a few to keep the eggs fertile for hatching. I bought an incubator and we have been running 2 small batches a year so we always have some ready to butcher and some getting ready to start laying when the older girls slack off.

 

[VenomJockey]

Weedygarden, goshengirl, Terri9630.....sounds like chicken to me! And you're right, Terri, ducks are rather greasy, though I love wild duck!

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

May be a dumb question, but nobody ever accused me of being a genius.....for an isolated retreat with many large predators roaming around, which would be better: DUCKS, or CHICKENS? Used for both egg production and food, and will they STAY in a large fenced in area, or are they going to be all over the place?

Predators will be happy with what ever you chose.

Both ducks and chickens will need to be penned. Chickens take more to keep them in, as they can fly, but ducks are way messier. Chickens can be kept in tractors and moved about and free ranged if close to the house and you have non-chicken eating dogs to keep varmints at bay. If not using chicken tractors, (not good if predators are bears and such) than a good solid coop and run is best. Electric wire around the whole shebang will help deter larger predators like bears who can destroy the set-up in minutes.

Ducks need quite a lot of water which they like stinking up and spreading about and if confined, this water also goes into making a stinking mess in the summer and a frozen poo skating rink in winter which then turns into a stinking mess in the spring. People have had good luck with a fenced pond with a duck house on a raft in the middle of it.

If stocking ducks, the right breed is essential, as many are seasonal layers. An egg every day for around two months in the spring and than nothing until fall when the same may occur with some of them. One duck egg is equivalent to two chicken eggs. The yolks are huge with a smaller amount of white in proportion. Duck eggs are very rich compared to chicken eggs and the whites are firmer in texture. Try one out before deciding to buy ducks. Others have commented on what they think of duck meat so I won't.

Ducks basically provide you with two breasts and a carcass for soup. You probably already know what you get from a chicken.

Ducks are really good at brooding although they have a problem hoarding up to three doz. eggs in a nest and than either having them all rot or all hatch. You may end up with 23 ducklings and find that all live, or more likely, that most of them die getting lost/left behind on the way to the pond, or simply stepped on by another duck. Its all a lottery with ducks.

I have both ducks and chickens and it is the chickens that will be staying if I have to tighten my belt any more.

 

[VenomJockey]

Predators will be happy with what ever you chose.

Both ducks and chickens will need to be penned. Chickens take more to keep them in, as they can fly, but ducks are way messier. Chickens can be kept in tractors and moved about and free ranged if close to the house and you have non-chicken eating dogs to keep varmints at bay. If not using chicken tractors, (not good if predators are bears and such) than a good solid coop and run is best. Electric wire around the whole shebang will help deter larger predators like bears who can destroy the set-up in minutes.

Ducks need quite a lot of water which they like stinking up and spreading about and if confined, this water also goes into making a stinking mess in the summer and a frozen poo skating rink in winter which then turns into a stinking mess in the spring. People have had good luck with a fenced pond with a duck house on a raft in the middle of it.

If stocking ducks, the right breed is essential, as many are seasonal layers. An egg every day for around two months in the spring and than nothing until fall when the same may occur with some of them. One duck egg is equivalent to two chicken eggs. The yolks are huge with a smaller amount of white in proportion. Duck eggs are very rich compared to chicken eggs and the whites are firmer in texture. Try one out before deciding to buy ducks. Others have commented on what they think of duck meat so I won't.

Ducks basically provide you with two breasts and a carcass for soup. You probably already know what you get from a chicken.

Ducks are really good at brooding although they have a problem hoarding up to three doz. eggs in a nest and than either having them all rot or all hatch. You may end up with 23 ducklings and find that all live, or more likely, that most of them die getting lost/left behind on the way to the pond, or simply stepped on by another duck. Its all a lottery with ducks.

I have both ducks and chickens and it is the chickens that will be staying if I have to tighten my belt any more.

Yep...Chickens it is. Ducks sound like a problem looking for a place to happen!

 

[UncleJoe]

Yep...Chickens it is. Ducks sound like a problem looking for a place to happen!

And then sometimes it's the ducks that have a problem.

 

[VenomJockey]

And then sometimes it's the ducks that have a problem.

View attachment 2731

Remember that old song, "Slip Sliding Away?" Simon & Garfunkle, I think.

 

[UncleJoe]

Remember that old song, "Slip Sliding Away?" Simon & Garfunkle, I think.

I do and yes it was.

 

[Smalltimefarmer]

Bought 6 baby chicks today. Cinnamon Queen. I had never tried this breed, but the sign said they are very productive layers and start laying earlier than most.

Also, the price of baby chicks has gone from $2.50 last year to $3.99 this year.

 

[LadyLocust]

Bought 6 baby chicks today. Cinnamon Queen. I had never tried this breed, but the sign said they are very productive layers and start laying earlier than most.

Also, the price of baby chicks has gone from $2.50 last year to $3.99 this year.

I've never heard of that bread. If you don't mind popping back in as they grow & let us know. Not just eggs but also temperament. I hope never to have Rhode Island Reds again. Those things are psycho! On the other hand, I got some silver laced wyandottes one year and they were awesome.