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Posted on 5/11/14 at 7:18 pm to Martini
I didn't read all of the pages of this, but you will need to trim their wings to keep them from flying too much...
basically, just get a set of heavy gardening shears and trim the feathers on one wing...be careful not to cut too close to the wing itself, or you will hurt them...also, don't trim both wings or it will be ineffective (the imbalance is what keeps them from flying)...
ETA: it may also have already been mentioned, but the best thing to feed them is corn or chops (broken kernels of corn) with some laying mash mixed in during the spring/summer...
basically, just get a set of heavy gardening shears and trim the feathers on one wing...be careful not to cut too close to the wing itself, or you will hurt them...also, don't trim both wings or it will be ineffective (the imbalance is what keeps them from flying)...
ETA: it may also have already been mentioned, but the best thing to feed them is corn or chops (broken kernels of corn) with some laying mash mixed in during the spring/summer...
This post was edited on 5/11/14 at 7:28 pm
Posted on 5/11/14 at 8:26 pm to Martini
quote: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.
They both look like fairly large chickens.
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).
quote:
So why no rooster?
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.
quote: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.
And do they stop completely in winter? Or just not as frequent?
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.
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