My chickens out in a light dusting of snow.

EastCoastmetal · Jan 19, 2017

Figured I would post a few snaps of my 4 laying hens today.

kcm · Jan 19, 2017

DINNER!!

The wife is itching to have chickens again. Maybe later this year. ....Maybe!

miboje · Jan 19, 2017

You're getting eggs already? Wow...my girls are slackers...lol!

EastCoastmetal · Jan 19, 2017

miboje said:
You're getting eggs already? Wow...my girls are slackers...lol!

I bought them in Nov as "ready to lay' but they usually are still a bit young to lay, I waited for month and a half or so and still they didn't lay, the reason is because there is not enough daylight this time of year. They recommend 15 hours of daylight to 'trigger" the hens to lay. Likely can have less like 12 hours or whatever,.

So I rigged up a light inside the coup and hooked a block heater timer to it so the light would come on at 4:30 pm as it was getting dark at 5:00 pm here in Dec. Set it to shut off at 9:00 pm so I had about 14 hours of "light" within 2 weeks they started laying, now all 4 lay everyday.

miboje · Jan 19, 2017

Ok, that explains it.

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G.I.B. · Jan 19, 2017

Now that could be considered fresh frozen.

If you could just get them to take their feathers off first, that would be an accomplishment.

EastCoastmetal · Jan 19, 2017

G.I.B. said:
Now that could be considered fresh frozen.

If you could just get them to take their feathers off first, that would be an accomplishment.

No no lol, If I kill them for dinner I don't get get anymore eggs!

I had black Cornish chickens before these, they did end up on my plate. They did lay eggs but were much smaller.

kcm · Jan 19, 2017

EastCoastmetal said:
No no lol, If I kill them for dinner I don't get get anymore eggs!

I had black Cornish chickens before these, they did end up on my plate. They did lay eggs but were much smaller.

...So which came first? The chicken sandwich or the egg?

EastCoastmetal · Jan 19, 2017

kcm said:
...So which came first? The chicken sandwich or the egg? View attachment 1404371

Dont know , maybe Bookaro knows hehe, ah I couldn't resist. :hello:

worldtalker · Jan 19, 2017

EastCoastmetal said:
Figured I would post a few snaps of my 4 laying hens today.

View attachment 1404194

View attachment 1404196

View attachment 1404197

Give them Layer Mash too.

G.I.B. · Jan 19, 2017

EastCoastmetal said:
No no lol, If I kill them for dinner I don't get get anymore eggs!

My mistake, I confused the light dusting of snow picture with a light dusting of flour.

tamrock · Jan 19, 2017

The town I live allows you to keep a max of 5 hens in the backyard. The neighbors have some, but I'm not around enough to care for any chickens, otherwise I'd get me some. Fresh laid eggs are the best eggs for sure.

EastCoastmetal · Jan 20, 2017

worldtalker said:
Give them Layer Mash too.

Yes we call it "layer crumble" here.

EastCoastmetal · Jan 20, 2017

tamrock said:
The town I live allows you to keep a max of 5 hens in the backyard. The neighbors have some, but I'm not around enough to care for any chickens, otherwise I'd get me some. Fresh laid eggs are the the best eggs for sure.

I can legally have 99 chickens.

My friend has like 60 or so at times, mostly like 30 meat kings in the spring for meat, then drops down to like 30 for eggs .

I help him with the "processing" of the meat kings usually and I get free meat for my freezer, although my job isn't very pleasant.

worldtalker · Jan 20, 2017

EastCoastmetal said:
Yes we call it "layer crumble" here.

They really like weeds pulled from your garden too,the more they eat from nature(not mash)the BETTER them eggs taste!

kcm · Jan 20, 2017

Absolutely right, Chris. Wife bought a couple dozen brown eggs from the store about a month back. Said they were about the worst she'd ever had.

worldtalker · Jan 20, 2017

kcm said:
Absolutely right, Chris. Wife bought a couple dozen brown eggs from the store about a month back. Said they were about the worst she'd ever had.

Nothing tastes today like it did when we were younger.

fmrUSMC_0844 · Jan 21, 2017

Very nice!! My chickens wont come out from under the coop. Too much snow for them I guess.

EastCoastmetal · Jan 21, 2017

worldtalker said:
They really like weeds pulled from your garden too,the more they eat from nature(not mash)the BETTER them eggs taste!

Yes for sure, but this time of year I have no greens etc from my garden. They love dandy lion greens, they just gobble them up lol.

I have a bag of whats called crushed 3 grain or some such, has crushed corn ,wheat, barley I think, I throw a cup of that out in their yard when the weather permits , so far we haven't had much snow that has stayed around at least. When the snow does hit and there is like a foot or 2 of snow on the ground, they are perma stuck in their coop until spring.

miboje · Jan 22, 2017

My girls don't care for any more than a dusting of snow.
They get organic feed with crushed egg shell, but they'd much rather be scratching around and eating grass, bugs and weeds. They enjoy homemade organic yogurt the most.
We got the first egg of the year yesterday.

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