re: Tell me about raising chickens

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They both look like fairly large chickens.

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The brown one on the right is a medium body hen (Americauna). They lay green or blue eggs. A long time ago, they were novelty hens that were only medium producers. These days, they come second only to commercial layers (leghorns). The Americaunas are at full production at 5 months of age.

The black one is a large body (black Australorps). A really good layer, but not excellent. It takes 7 months for an Australorp to get to full production, and they were more sensitive to the heat (would often stop laying in the dog days of summer).

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So why no rooster?

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1. They consume food ($) and lay no eggs
2. Not worth a damn to eat
3. Don't need a rooster for hens to lay eggs
4. Imagine living with Joe Pesci in a 1-bedroom apartment. Would stress you out, right?. Roosters have the same effect on laying hens. Hens undoubtedly lay more prolifically and are less prone to molting when there is no rooster around. They're just calmer and happier.
5. If you don't have enough hens per rooster, the rooster will lay open the flesh on a hen's back from violently mounting/breeding them 20 times a day. Infection and time spent doctoring becomes an issue.

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And do they stop completely in winter? Or just not as frequent?

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It's 100% driven by hours of light. Winter temperatures do not effect laying rate, it's the shorter days. They lay less and less as the days shorten in the fall, then usually quit mid-winter. They gradually ramp back up as daylight hours increase.

Many commercial egg farms keep lights on their hens 20 to 24 hrs a day to max out production. However, this "burns out" the hen after 14-16 months, and they simply toss them in a grinder when they start to molt from production stress.

My hens in Alaska were at 100% production in temps below zero and 4-hour days because I used lights on timers. Folks up there don't know why my hens produced, and theirs didn't. I have some of them convinced that it's Texas strain chicks I brought up with me.

I have redundancy in the lighting (2 lights on 2 timers for when something fails (a sudden change in light hours can induce a molt and cause egg production to cease for 2 months).

Only adjust lighting 15-minutes per week.

Also, I only do wintertime lighting every 2nd winter so they'll have a winter off to recuperate. This (in addition to low stress) is why my hens lay so well for so many years.

To keep in eggs every winter, I keep 2 coops. I give them winter rest in alternating years.

Dear lord I'd slit my wrists if I had to be around Joe Pesci like that even though I have no clue how the hell you came up with that.

I appreciate all your input and everyone else's as well. I'm looking forward to this and will keep my progress or lack of noted.

My father in law stopped by today and gave me a dozen "Easter" eggs that were all different colors. Someone by his home sells them at four bucks a dozen. My dinner tonight was three soft scrambled with a little butter in the pan, salt and pepper. Dark, deep yellow and incredible. I'm ready for my own.

We have 4 chickens in a small coop next to our shed. We let them out in the afternoon and make sure they return to the coop around sunset, most of the times they head to the coop on their own when it starts getting dark. I use pine shavings in the coop and laying boxes to keep the smell down, it is also supposed to be a natural insect repellent. Layer's feed, water and all our fruit/veggie scraps are fed to the chickens. I keep a couple of live traps set along the wood line of our yard, catfood is the best bait and there is no relocation of coons or possums that are caught. We get 3-4 eggs a day which is plenty for us.