Tag: raising chickens

My chickens are a motley crew that spends much of its day out foraging for grass and bugs. So, when I received a report of lost chickens, I took it seriously.

These chickens were over the hill by the creek, a place none of my chickens had ever gone. This was suspicious.

Trying to Count Chickens

My present flock has 31 hens and two roosters. I went out and started counting. I found 29 hens and the roosters, so I had no lost chickens.

That meant there were strange chickens down the road from me. Where did they come from? Did they belong to anyone?

My nearest neighbors in that direction are a mile and a half away. They have no chickens.

Chicken Investigation

I put a scoop of scratch feed in a bucket and started off down the road. It’s a nice walk, even if I didn’t find any chickens.

And, there by the creek, I found these lost chickens. Four roosters. Why would someone dump out four roosters? Potential chicken dinners? Potential money at the small animal sale?

Herding Chickens

There was a time when I pounce on a chicken. I even ran down a fox one day to rescue a hen. I don’t do things like that any more.

Instead, I called these roosters and tossed out a little feed. They were hungry and came right over, not close enough to grab, but I was their new best friend.

We made it over the hill before I ran out of feed. I tried herding them, but they bolted up the hill. I went to get more feed and they went back to the creek.

Second Encounter

The next morning, I was headed into town. On a whim, I put a sack of scratch feed in the truck. And met the roosters on their way over the hill in search of their new friend, the one with food.

I parked the truck and started moving the roosters down the hill from handful of feed to handful of feed. We arrived at the barn gate and these roosters were glad to see all those hens.

Unhappy Chickens

My flock was settled. The two roosters had an uneasy truce helped by the fact one was very old, for a chicken.

Now four new young roosters have moved in. The six compete for the hens. They serenade the place all day.

My original rooster feels threatened and gives chase whenever he can. Even the four new ones fight and chase each other. They are no longer lost chickens.

I like eggs and use them year round. That means my chickens need to lay winter eggs even though they normally wouldn’t.

Chickens are what is called a long day bird. This means they naturally lay eggs when the days are growing longer or are long as in spring and summer, then stop in the fall. Since chickens lay eggs to raise chicks, this puts hatching at the best time of the year.

Domestic chickens don’t usually raise their own chicks. Some breeds don’t get broody and try to set. Other breeds are a disaster breaking the eggs they try to set.

Instead, domestic chickens are supposed to have one mission in life: laying eggs. That leaves the tie to daylength a problem for people like me who want winter eggs.

Using Lights

I have two ways to encourage winter production. One is using lights. This developed thanks to my goats.

Over the winter I milked after dark so the barn lights were on until long after the sun had set. Now I milk before dark, but walk out to turn the barn lights out later on. (This is one of the adjustments to getting older.)

Not All Lights Work

When the first energy saver lights came out, I put them up in my barn. Changing light bulbs out there is a nuisance and these were supposed to work for years.

Egg production almost ceased that fall. It didn’t start up again until mid-January with longer days.

I went back to incandescent bulbs and had eggs the next winter.

My next experiment was with Daylight LED bulbs. A friend assured me these do work. They didn’t for me, although I suspect I needed more wattage.

Raising Pullets

My second method is to raise pullets each spring. If the chicks are hatched in April, the pullets should start laying about October into November and continue laying over the winter.

There may be other approaches that work. These two work for me and result in plenty of winter eggs.