digitS',
Your girls (as my grandpa used to call his hens) sound just a picky as my spoiled old cats. One day one kind of food is their favorite. The next time it comes around, they won't touch it.

Nice eggs!

There's no question that they are spoiled but I just think about 'em being so young. From egg to egg: 21 weeks! They grew up almost overnight it seems.

Edna is the greedy one or let's just say she has a good appetite, maybe why she was laying first. Last night when I turned off their 14 hour light, I picked up an empty plastic, treat bag. She immediately jumped off the roost to see what I'd brought - nothing, I was carrying something away.

I gave her another 10 minutes to get back on the roost before turning off their light. This morning, Edna met me in their henyard in the pre-dawn light. Obviously, she'd spent the night waiting for me to come back with pun'kin or somethin' and ventured out the "chicken door" after it became lighter outside than inside.

I had to feel sorry for her despite her little bird brain. They make such an issue of cuddling together on the roost at night. I know she didn't get much sleep in the dark, by herself. The next time this happens, should I put her back on the roost, myself? I suppose so . . . Sheesh

d'S'

Hehe.. That's the other reason I can't have chickens. I'm a spoiler...

"This morning, Edna met me in their henyard..."

Oh, my word!!! You ARE a spoiler and it sounds so sweet.

When will there be new photos of the chickens, for us folk who don't know nothin' 'bout chickens and what not?

Edna...so silly!

We try to buy all our eggs from the local farm by my work. The fresh ones just taste so much better than the store bought ones.

How often do you buy...adopt?...new chicks?

J.

We gave our 12 hens away last month. They were over 2 years old and starting to cut down on laying. I am not sure if we will get new chicks in the spring or not. One would come running every time I called the dog. We think she thought it was her name. Another followed me around looking for grasshoppers. We would catch the grasshoppers and throw them over the fence as we couldn't let them in the garden because they would peck the tomatoes and squash. I do miss them. They were fairly picky and didn't want beet or carrot tops. But we brought home old bread and tore it up for them and they liked to pick at it.

Ya know, Margaret, it is possible that it WAS her name!!

"When will there be new photos of the chickens, for us folk who don't know nothin' 'bout chickens and what not?"

I only thought about taking a picture of the birds yesterday. They wouldn't even spend much time in their covered "sunporch" because of the wind.

I was once told by a guy I served on a non-profit board with that a certain proposal looked like a "chicken in a windstorm." The news is, they don't like wind! I'll see how things turn out today, it's bright but I'm busy for awhile. By the time I'm done - they should be finished with their egglaying duties.

"How often do you buy...adopt?...new chicks?"

That was a little problem in the past. I've often gone months or even over a year with none. I gotta coordinate this better. The only answer - more chickens!?!

Steve's digits

. . . scratching thru the Autumn leaves . . .

The light failed in the early afternoon today as I took these photo's. The flash went off on all shots even with a full Western sky behind me. And, 4 hens are probably more difficult subjects than 4 toddlers!! Gracious!

Edna can be identified by her ample rear end. She and the other Barred Rock are the ones laying but the Black Australorps are close (I keep telling myself). Spring's eggs are showing up every day but they are still smaller than Edna's, who has been laying for over 2 weeks, now.

Yvonne, nearest the camera, really is a charcoal gray with some green iridescence. Olivia is jet black with lots of iridescence. She is really very pretty.

Spoiling hardly counts. I remember reading a study on dairy cows fed "snacks" of their regular feed throughout the day and how that significantly improved their milk production. They respond to the attention in a way that favors the farmer . . . . contented cows, happy hens . . .

Steve's digits

Most chickens will start laying 6-8 months old and then about 2 years they start decrease laying. So we usually try to buy every three years. Have not had any luck setting eggs. Maybe the rooster was a dud? Didn't have a rooster this last time. My friend's daughter who has chickens feeds her chickens the whey from goats milk that she uses to make cheese and says they lay younger and bigger eggs. I don't think there is any chance ever that my DH will let me have goats!

I buy a few chicks every year when the kids order their 4-H birds. I let my hens die of old age rather than butchering them or giving them away. I figure I owe them that, plus I am too busy (I'll call it that) to keep track of exactly how old everyone is.

Margaret - goats huh? I remember milking duty. My dad really ticked off one of our cats one morning. He squirted our old tom cat and boy was that cat ticked, until he started cleaning the 'water" off. He came back for more every morning.

Billie

I was really surprised looking at a Principles of Poultry Science book on the subject of age and production. Researchers kept laying hens until they were 140 weeks old. Most of the laying hens in the "food industry" are lucky to make it to 60 weeks of age . . . considering the conditions, maybe lucky isn't the right word.

They molted (lost some feathers & stopped producing eggs) twice during this time. But they come back from this, actually more quickly after that second molt. Not surprisingly, their best performance was in that first laying period where they started at close to 100% each day and just dropped a little below 80%. But, their second laying period started at nearly 90% and dropped to about 70%.

What is surprising to me is that in their 3rd year, they kept their daily production above 60% - more than an egg every other day?! This is from production hens that are supposed to burn out quickly, suffer from osteoporosis and all sorts of other problems. Egg quality actually improved for the older hens.

The pullet has 3600 to 4000 miniature ova from the get-go. They will only produce about 270 eggs under industrial conditions. I did a rough, conservative calculation of the hens in the study (at 70% production during 112 weeks over their 140 weeks). They've produced 550 eggs . . .

The fact that the industry only allows them 60 months of life is because the profit margins are so low. Mostly, they are trying to keep the birds at a high rev for a brief period and wouldn't tolerate a 30% drop in production from an "old" hen.

digitS'

Steve - is that your fancy way of saying that I am really not losing much by letting the "old girls" hang around?

Billie

Three eggs each of the last 2 days - Olivia is the new laying hen.

Billie, I've never let them hang around before but I'm getting soft & wondering whether to consider it.

If I keep putting good food in front of them, maybe they won't just . . .

What was it Walter Brennan said? "You're putting sugar under the nose of a dead horse!" - That it?

d'Steve