chickeen trouble

[walls0stone]

I got some Buff Orpingtons the other day, and some Banny whatevers... My egg line up now looks like this..

cal' whites pullets

2 Buff Orpingtons fully grown

some banny hens,

and one barred rock Rooster named suprise.. actualy Pullet' Supprise :D

I'm only getting one egg a day...a white egg. I know buffs are brown egg layers. I just picked up the call whites in late may as chicks. They told me they were all Pullets, but due to a shortage of chickens this year...I think that I may have recived some males as well. SO...anyone have any ideas? Pics of the diffrance perhaps?

My birds get a good ration of crack corn, and layer mash. They also get plenty of grass, veggie scraps, and apples from my yard. They havea dirt mound in the cage, so they have plenty of bugs..and I have a waterer for way more birds that I own...so any ideas?

[bee_pipes]

We have buffs - third year now. First year they were born around mid July. Started laying in December - sporadically. By January they were going good. Last year they started moulting around October and started laying in December - sproadically. By January they were again regular. Right now we're seeing two or so eggs a day - for eight buffs and a mix of a few odd balls. Should be back to business as usual by January.

A little patience - they'll do all right by you.

Regards,
Pat

[walls0stone]

ok, so if i want 8 + eggs a day every day what make and moddle should I get?

What type of bird will lay all winter? or is their such a critter??

what sort of bird will have chicks regular?

I could look this stuff up on line, but those people do have something to sell me and as much as I'm totaly ok with that I also like to do the math.

[bee_pipes]

If you want 8+ eggs a day, you will need 8+ hens. Chickens don't lay eggs every day - every 26 hours, I think. That means someone will be skipping a day. We got the buffs because they are supposed to lay all year. That's sort of a misnomer. I am no expert on chickens, but they all moult every year. That's just too much of a tax on their bodies. They do need time to rest and regenerate. You can put lights in the chicken house - some folks do that. The shorter daylight hours tell them to stop laying. Me, I give them a break. They do well for me all year, so I let them have their rest and stoke them with a higher protein feed during moult and winter. It's just a lean period for us with eggs.

Buff Orpingtons are considered a utility breed - that's like a sleeper sofa. Not a great sofa, not a great bed - not a great layer and not a great meat bird. Layers are not supposed to be grood meat birds, and good meat birds are not good layers - I've been told. Orpingtons are a little of both. We eat the roosters and collect eggs from the hens. A good layer might give you eggs all year, but I think most of them hit a moult and take it easy at one time during the year. The trick with the light is the only way I've heard around it, and even then you may only be shortening the period, not eliminating it.

If you want a bird that will raise chicks, you need a good setter and brooder. Buffs are supposed to be good for that. Bantys too. One fellow I talked to said that he keeps banty hens setting on eggs all summer. We've had hens go broody on us - takes a lot out of them. I prefer using an incubator. When a chicken goes broody, they stop laying. I'd rather hatch my own eggs in an incubator and keep the hens laying. We've had guineas hatch out clutches of eggs in the yard. Takes them about a week, but they manage to lose all the keets eventually.

We just recentyl tried meat birds. Had real good luck with them. They spent 6 weeks on high protein feed and we slaughtered them. Got two dozen chickens for the freezer. They might have gotten bigger if we kept feeding them, but we wanted to shut down for the winter. Older birds get tougher.

Take it easy on the cracked corn - a little goes a long way. It turns to fat on the chickens if you overdo it. Take a look through the older posts in Fauna / Livestock/Horses (http://www.backwoodshome.com/forum/yabb/forum.pl?board=fau-livestock) and you'll find information about chickens. Matter of fact, try posting there - you might get more answers from chicken folks.

Regards,
Pat

[ldsparamedic]

We had Rhode Island Reds which were regular egg factories. Plus, they are great mommies to hatch your replacements. Even down here in SW AZ our hens slacked off from laying in the winter. If you have a cold snap, or a heat spell your hens will go off laying while their bodies adjust. Sunlight is another issue. Hens are active from can see to can't see. They eat all the time they are awake, which provides the needed nutrients for egg production. During the winter they eat less, plus their bodies need additional protien to keep warm. Here are a couple of suggestions: Make sure your hen house is draft free, add a light on a timer to extend their "days" to 12 -14 hours. Make sure they have a high protien feed. I never liked layer mash. I fed regular grain (cracked corn and wheat) and had oyster shell available. In the winter I added soybean meal to the grain to boost the protien. I hope this helps.
-John

[LeatherneckPA]

walls, I don't see any problem with your breeds, but your numbers are too low for 8 a day. I have the following flock (all raised from day-olds delivered May 2nd): 4 Barred Rock, 4 Black Australorp, and 4 Gold Laced Wyandotte hens accompanied by 1 Barred Rock rooster and one NH Red rooster. My girls get their light turned on at 630am daily and off at 8pm daily. They are averaging 8 eggs per day between the 12 of them. And remember, that's an average. There are days of only 5 and there have been days of 11. A typical day is 8-9.

My immediate reaction to your OP was that you didn't mention supplemental lighting. I personally discovered how important that was when I screwed up their lighting one week and production plummeted to nil. And surprisingly, the same thing happens if you don't turn off the light for a rest period. So there is such a thing as too much light. I find my 13½ hours works just fine though.