Post by happyeverafter on Dec 13, 2019 13:07:11 GMT -5
Found one a couple of weeks ago in Happy’s pen. Didn’t look like anything was wrong with it. I didn’t look it over, just threw it in the compost heap. Now this morning I found another one in her pen. This one had a broken leg. Some of its skin was tore a little. Not sure if Happy stepped on her or what?
Anyway we got 18 chickens from a friend last summer. They had just been getting wheat and scraps for quite a while and not free ranging. They were molting when we got them. We didn’t get very many eggs at all at first. Finally worked up to about 8 a day but that didn’t last very long either. Lately we’ve been getting about one day. We don’t have a light on in their coop. I wondered if they were lacking something or just need a break? This chicken that got killed was the only one that hadn’t got all her back feathers back from molting. So I figured she probably was using everything she got to grow her feathers back.
So the three kiddos and I cut into her. She had nice yellow fat. (Is that good?) She has a bunch of baby yolks inside. Also a soft shelled egg with yoke inside. I was beginning to think that some of the chickens must have something wrong. But as far as I could tell everything looked normal. Is it worth having 16 chickens all winter for 1 egg a day? Sometimes there’s 3 and sometimes there’s none. So probably averages about 1 a day.
We’re not spending a whole lot on them. They have layer pellets available but they spend most of their time in the pasture and eating scraps. I’m beginning to wonder if I should just butcher them and get new chicks. They are probably about 2.5 years old.
My main question is if she had mini egg yolks in her, should she also be laying them? I never see her in the coop laying eggs. We’ve left them locked up all day to see if their laying somewhere else but that doesn’t seem to make a difference. We still get the same amount of eggs.
Anyway we got 18 chickens from a friend last summer. They had just been getting wheat and scraps for quite a while and not free ranging. They were molting when we got them. We didn’t get very many eggs at all at first. Finally worked up to about 8 a day but that didn’t last very long either. Lately we’ve been getting about one day. We don’t have a light on in their coop. I wondered if they were lacking something or just need a break? This chicken that got killed was the only one that hadn’t got all her back feathers back from molting. So I figured she probably was using everything she got to grow her feathers back.
So the three kiddos and I cut into her. She had nice yellow fat. (Is that good?) She has a bunch of baby yolks inside. Also a soft shelled egg with yoke inside. I was beginning to think that some of the chickens must have something wrong. But as far as I could tell everything looked normal. Is it worth having 16 chickens all winter for 1 egg a day? Sometimes there’s 3 and sometimes there’s none. So probably averages about 1 a day.
We’re not spending a whole lot on them. They have layer pellets available but they spend most of their time in the pasture and eating scraps. I’m beginning to wonder if I should just butcher them and get new chicks. They are probably about 2.5 years old.
My main question is if she had mini egg yolks in her, should she also be laying them? I never see her in the coop laying eggs. We’ve left them locked up all day to see if their laying somewhere else but that doesn’t seem to make a difference. We still get the same amount of eggs.