Where are the eggs?

Definitely the question of the month...where are the eggs? My flock of about a dozen laying hens have been conspicuously absent from the egg laying business. Most winters our egg production will drop and perhaps even stop all together for awhile after a significant drop in temperatures. But no eggs at all? I'm not dealing well with this at all.



I know the basics: good poultry feed; 14-16 hours of light; shelter; all the stuff that we normally provide. So what would be the difference this year?

Well for one, I had slipped into the habit of buying an all-purpose 14% feed. Definitely not the protein or calcium that laying hens need. So two weeks ago, I updated their feed and have made a commitment to always have their feeder topped off so they are not tempted to forage so much and dilute their diet.

We have been running a light on a timer all winter with a few hours in the morning and a few more hours in the evening totaling 14 hours. But I may have stumbled upon something out of curiosity the other day. Online sources I referenced made mention of providing light obviously but some went so far as to suggest red or orange bulbs that would provide more of the natural spectrum light they need. Being lazy I just stuck in a regular light bulb in their house without a thought this fall. I'm beginning to wonder if it was not providing enough of the right type of light for them. In other years I have run a red heat lamp and have had great laying as mentioned above throughout the winter months.



Other than these two changes, there isn't much more I can do I suppose. Fresh water is out all the time. They have a fantastic house to roost in. Nice laying boxes filled with hay which they prefer to shavings. Satin pillows perhaps? Soothing music? It has been two weeks since the feed change and just this week with the new light. So I'm anticipating some eggs here real soon. The kids are anxiously waiting to feast on raw cookie dough again!

Curled Toes and Riboflavin Deficiency in Chicks

I hate when you have to learn something the hard way. This week's lesson: riboflavin deficiency in poultry which causes curled toes and eventual paralysis.

One of our sexlink hens brooded a clutch of nine eggs and hatched out six of those on May 9. Now 16 days later, we discovered one of the chicks outside, alone, unable to move with a case of curled toes. Now perhaps I haven't done my research properly, but from what I can tell, this is a common reaction to vitamin B2, or riboflavin, deficiency.

Here's how I believe it happened. Momma hen has her six chicks with her foraging along side the other hens. Although I have tried to pull them aside and feed the chicks the normal chick starter/grower feed that we use for our replacement hens, it has been difficult to keep our egg layers from consuming it. As it is medicated, I don't want that feed entering our egg supply. The chick in question has always been the one to lag behind and more than likely is not receiving his fair share. My guess is that in the larger picture of our poultry set up, this little chick has simply not received adequate nutrition.

These links were helpful in doing my own diagnosis:

Merk Vet Manual
World Poultry
Backyard Chickens
Backyard Chickens

From what I could tell, if nutrition is corrected as soon as the deficiency is noticed by giving Poly Vi Sol infant vitamin drops, then it is possible to reverse the situation. We're not quite to 24 hours yet after starting this chick's recovery process, but it seems to have worsened instead. We can only hope that it will in time pull out, but frankly I'm not hopeful.

With our recent heavy bout of rain, it has been hard to keep tabs on the chicks as momma has had to keep them brooded to stay warm, and we have simply not been outside as much. Lesson learned I guess.

So what are we going to do to keep the other chicks healthy? I'm contemplating a design to allow the chicks to "creep feed" as is done with other livestock. The smaller, younger animals are able to access feedstuffs available for their consumption only and not by the older, larger animals.

Although we have not experienced this situation before raising chicks in a similar manner, it is a concern that we will need to address to keep it from happening again.

If you've had experience with a similar deficiency, leave me a comment. I'd like to hear what advice you have to offer.

Rotten Eggs

"Last one home is a rotten egg!" Ever hear that before? It was a frequent phrase while I was growing up, but I must admit I never stopped to wonder what was so bad about a rotten egg. Do I ever know now...



Raising your own hens for fresh eggs has always been a desire of mine since we adopted a bantam chicken when I was a child that appeared out of nowhere in the middle of a suburban LA neighborhood. Now that we have the property to keep chickens, we do. Their eggs are fantastic. We love them and so do our occasional customers. However, with that said it bears repeating that eggs are only as fresh as you allow them to become.

I will admit that during the times we are not providing eggs for customers, my egg collection habits can get a bit sloppy. And yes, we have a couple of roosters hanging around so the eggs are fertilized. So now imagine the scenario...eggs get fogotten under hens or the lucky child sent to get eggs does not want to bear the wrath of an angry hen and doesn't search for any under particularly annoying ladies. That same eggs escapes coming into the house for more days than it should while receiving the incubating warmth it needs to develop. One day the egg is unsuspectingly collected with the others and brought into the house. It may sit around awhile in the fridge before it's used, and then one day, it's cracked open to the panic of the cook. And boy does it smell...reek...of a most distasteful, putrid odor. No matter how fast you rush that egg and its watery contents out of the house, you're left with a lingering reminder of your careless mistake.

So, here's how I should be protecting myself from further odoriferous adventures other than the obvious of prompt egg collection and refrigeration. Eggs can be floated in a bowl of water and observed. Those that lay flat on the bottom are as fresh as fresh can be. If they begin to tilt upwards at a 45 degree angle, they're ok but the yolks may crack upon breaking. A little more age on the egg, and it will float on its end on the bottom of the bowl. I'd still use this egg but maybe just in baking. Once that egg is floating on top of the water, it's gone. The last test for a dead-ringer of a bad egg...give it a little shake. Any sloshing inside is an indication that all is not well inside and you should get that egg to an outside garbage asap.

After another incident with a rotten egg, I have vowed to be more careful with egg collection at our home. With cooler weather coming, the eggs do stay fresher outside in our refrigerator temperature weather here. But all the same, they do belong inside in the refrigerator.

I guess life raising animals to provide your family with healthy and nourishing food can throw you a twist now and again. Any harrowing stories you'd like to share? Love to hear and laugh along with you.

It's All About the Eggs

Yes it is all about the eggs, isn't it? Why else do we keep chickens. Since moving to our little place, we've had a hen or two on hand. The first was a throw-away Easter chicken that a friend of ours rescued in town and thought would live quite nicely out at our place. We had no chicken accommodations in the early days, so we put her out in the front pasture with our only other piece of livestock, a miniature Mediterranean donkey. Well "Daisy" the hen got pretty attached to "Holly" the donkey and soon started following her around everywhere. It was kinda cute. We put out a doghouse for her and that was where she slept. Then one day ... it happened ... screams from the front pasture and a small child running back to the house with a beautiful green egg in her hand. We were hooked and have been purchasing chicks at the feed store every year to keep ourselves in chickens.

I don't keep track anymore, but I think we have around 15 or so. They lay more than enough eggs for our use, so I usually try to sell the extra dozens for $3 or so. As you can see, some are Araucanas and lay the Easter colored eggs, but for the most part, the others that are laying the best right now are traditional breeds ... sexlinks, banties, and last year's buff orpingtons.



We allow the hens to hatch out eggs, or they do so on their own because we just don't know about it. The chicks that survived the natural course of events this year have all turned out to be roosters it would appear, so several of the following guys are going to have to go.



And another reason to keep poultry, the crowing. During the times we haven't had a rooster on the premises, we actually got to missing that sound and had to track one down to purchase. And by the way, it's only a bedtime story fallacy that roosters crow in the morning. First-hand evidence at our place indicates that roosters crow plentifully during all waking, and at times, non-waking hours.