Molting Season...I'm Collecting More Feathers Then Eggs These Days

[Goldie (Buff Orpington) in molt, new feathers coming in and old ones falling out.]

With the days growing shorter and the girls all over 1 year old, its raining feathers around here.  I could seriously stuff some big pillows, but they would be a little pokey.  The girls look just awful...talk about your worst hair day!  This is our first molting since the girls are so young.  Thank goodness I've studied up on chicken keeping because I didn't remember it being this bad when I was a kid.  Of course as a kid I probably just had fun catching the feathers blowing all around.

Just look at these girls...awful!

[Barbara (Barred Rock in center), Buffy (Buff Orpington in back), Snowball's butt (White Rock)]

Talk about bad hair day...look at Barbara with feathers falling off of her everywhere. Her head is looking so much nicer as the new feathers come in.

[Barbara (Barred Rock). See the loose feathers everywhere?]

Buffy is nearing the end of molting with just her butt bare, but with new feathers sprouting there...

[Buffy's finally down to mostly just the butt area in full molt.]

If you look closely at Goldies butt...yeah I know you probably don't want to but look anyway...she has a bunch of new tiny feathers poking out all over.  

[Goldie has a bunch of new feathers poking out of her bare rear-end.]

My poor girls are still laying, but they have slowed way down.  I swear I find more feathers then eggs in the nest boxes every day.  I just keep picking them out when I collect their eggs.

[Egg production down, feather production up!]

To help the girls ease through this phase without completely depleting them nutritionally, I have upped their protein.  We are still getting about 6-8 eggs a day from my 16 girls, so I can't complain.  The neighbor down the hill from us isn't getting any, his chickens just stopped laying all together.

I've had to put a halt on selling eggs to anyone other than my long time regulars, because there aren't many left after we have our breakfast.  Just this morning I was short an egg for breakfast so I had to go out and steal one hot off the presses, the bloom was barely dry when I grabbed it.  Talk about Fresh!!

As I said, I've upped their protein by adding some dried split peas or wheat berries to their fermented feed.  They also get some dried meal worms in the afternoon, and of course they get to come out and hunt down whats left of the grasshoppers and other critters before they go to bed for the night.  How are you helping your girls make it through the molting season?

Keeper of 1 husband, 3 dogs,

3 cats, and 16 Chickens!

 

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Weird Egg Laying Event Right in Front of My Camera. ~Chicken Pro's Please Chime In!

Tonight when I was spending some time with my chickens, like I do almost every evening an hour or so before their bedtime, the weirdest thing happened.  Maybe you chicken experts can explain this one to me.

I happen to have my camera with me and caught this whole thing in pictures, how cool is that?  Okay, so here is some background information first.  Big Red laid a beautiful egg at about 8:00 am this morning.  A perfect egg in every way.  Then this evening at about 7:30 pm while I was snapping pics of the chickens, I happen to turn towards her.  She was standing still by the door of the run.  She looked like she was about to go poop...you know what that looks like -she pulls her butt feathers in, slightly squats and her tail feathers pull downward as she pushes it out.  Well when she did that I noticed nothing came out.  I wanted to take her picture so I waited another second then snapped a shot (thinking I would miss the actual pooping and get a still shot before she walked away).  Instead I got this shot.

Do you see the bulge at her vent?  Here is a close up with an arrow...

What the heck?!?  That looks like a baby crowning!  And then all of a sudden it is out on the ground.  Even Big Red was shocked by this.

Big Red: "Did I do that?"

She laid an egg! But wait, she just laid an egg about 11 hours ago...what happened to the 25 hour ovulation thing? 

And this was not a normal egg either.  For one, it did not have a shell, and it had a....uh, (for lack of a better explanation), it had what looked like an open umbilical cord on the end.

And the 'white' of the egg was slowly dripping out of the tube opening.  The outer egg sack was thick and did not break when I picked it up. What the heck happened here?  Surely you longtime chicken keepers have seen this before.  Can you tell me why she laid another egg after only 12 hours, and why this one had the open tube on one end?

Could this be like when we humans have miscarriages because the baby is not formed properly?  Could this be a miscarriage of an egg that wasn't suppose to be ready until tomorrow morning? After she laid this 'egg' she took a few steps away then took a standing nap.  She does that on occasion, just her thing I guess.  But obviously she felt comfortable afterwards so she just napped a few moments.

I am not going to freak out or anything, weird stuff happens when chickens begin laying eggs, this I know and understand, but this was just so weird, probably because it happened right in front of me (and my camera fortunately).  Please share your experience on this if you have seen this before.

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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Lazy Sunday afternoons with the Grandkids and Chickens!

I love lazy Sunday afternoons...

The grandkids are visiting us this weekend, and we're having such a great time hanging with the chickens, visiting a friends animals, and spending some quiet time at the public library.  Later today we are planning a Jeep drive to explore the mountains, and have a picnic.

The grandkids usually spend at least two weekends a month with us, but the last three weekends they have been at their dads for an extended summer break visit.  The kids were shocked at how much the chickens have grown in that time.  They got to meet our newest edition, Big Red, who we got right after their last visit.  They were so excited when I tol them that Big Red lays an egg almost every day.  She has been sweet enough to lay an egg daily while the kids have been visiting.  Collecting the daily egg has been so much fun for the kids.  Little Miss did the actual collecting of the egg because she is tall enough to reach in to the nesting box, but she let Little Man hold it too.  He asked if the egg was real, haha.  They have only see eggs that come out of a carton purchased at the store, so this was a special thrill for them.

I think that Little Miss must be a 'Chicken Whisperer' because the chicks just flock to her when she comes in the run.  She seems to have instantly bonded with them and even the chicks that never let me even touch them have walked right up to her and allowed her to pick them up.  Little Man wasn't interested much in the chickens, but hey, what do you expect of a 4 year old boy when there's an electric quad all charged up and a big yard to ride around in.

Well, I have to go, they are about done drawing their books that I need to help them staple together as a gift for mom.  Enjoy some of the pictures of fun things we have done this weekend so far.

Little Miss showing off the first egg she collected.

Little Miss eating scrambled eggs from Big Red.  She loved them!

Petting the 17 week old Pygmy Goats (not ours, but maybe soon!!!)

Little Man checking out the Donkey...a little apprehensive.

Little Miss instantly bonds with any animal (or insect).

Little man...I put this straw hat on his head and he instantly broke out in a cowboy song & dance.

Some quiet computer time at the library.

What are you doing on this wonderful weekend around your place?

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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Official Egg Count for our Flock

This page will be the Official Egg Count Page for our Flock.  I thought it would be fun (and informative) to keep track of how many eggs our flock produces in a year.  So this page will be where I keep my egg collection stats.  I will update it at least weekly, noting any interesting changes that occurred in that week as I go.  As we begin I have 7 chicks that are not laying and 1 hen that just started laying in May, (but she did not come to us until June 3rd).   I will post my updates in reverse order with the most recent at the top (like blog posts are listed, newest first).

Total Eggs Laid This Year (2014):  ** XX **  [Lost track near the end of 2013, so I stopped recording the count. ] 

 

For the week ending Thursday, August 1st. We got 0 eggs so far this week.

• Skipped a day of laying on Friday.  First missed day in over 2 weeks.

Week ending Thursday, July 25th. We got 7 eggs so far this week.

• Last week I witnessed my 13 week old Barred Rock cockerel mating (or so it appeared) several times with my laying hen Big Red.  I will be checking her eggs for fertility this week, just out of curiosity as to whether or not he is old enough to be fertile already. 
• All eggs were verified as fertile upon inspection of the yokes, even the double yokers were fertile.  I placed one of her eggs in the incubator and candling on day 6 showed a live chicken embryo doing well inside!  See the full post about this here. 
• Interesting that since a few days after mating with Barry, Big Red has been laying full-sized, single yoke eggs.  All of which have been fertile so far.

Week ending Thursday, 18th of July! We got 7 eggs this week!

• It seems that Big Red has calmed down now with no more moving around because she is laying beautiful eggs every day, many of them were double Yorkers too.  She must be kicking out the eggs in overdrive.  
• She has also been back on fermented feed steady for two weeks now since we returned from evacuation.

Week ending Thursday, 11th of July! We got 4 eggs this week.

• We returned from evacuation on Thursday night and Big Red laid a huge (double-yoker) egg early Friday evening.
• Sunday morning Big Red laid another huge egg.  I wonder how long she will be laying double-yokers?  I am not complaining, just curious.  
• I am surprised we got 4 eggs this week after the 'Weird Egg Laying' event.  She laid another shell-less egg the next evening and then laid two thin, but whole eggs the next two days.  I guess she just had a bit of lingering stress from all the moving around and small quarters during the evacuation.  She seems to be back to normal.  Hope her eggs thicken back up as this next week progresses.

Week ending Thursday, 4th of July! We had 3 eggs.

• The first egg this week was huge!  I bet it is a double-yoker.  Will know soon when we have it for breakfast. 
• Saturday's egg was not viable...totally my fault too :-/  You see, Friday we had late afternoon monsoon rains that cooled us down from 101 to the upper 80's outside.  So I made the bad decision to turn the A/C unit off in the coop.  It obviously wasn't going to come on til the next day mid-morning so why leave it on I thought.  Well, Saturday morning I forgot to turn it back on.  So when Big Red went inside to lay her egg, it was well over 100 in the coop.  Pour girl tried to stay in there and lay her egg but it was so hot she could not sit in the nest box so she must have been pacing inside the coop totally stressed by the heat.  She finally laid an egg and it was so thin-shelled that it broke when she dropped it on the floor of the coop.  I feel so bad for her, she really needs to spend about an hour just relaxing in the next box in a cool room, then she lays beautiful eggs.
• Despite the stress of being evacuated, and living in a temporary dog kennel without a coop or nest box, Big Red laid a beautiful brown egg this evening.  She laid it right on the ground while my daughter and granddaughter looked on.  My granddaughter cheerfully collected the egg and she even remembered to thank Big Red for giving us this egg today.

Week ending Thursday, June 27th.  We had 4 eggs this week, and the grandkids got to collect it.  They were thrilled.  My grandson asked if it was real, lol.  I said yes it is and you can have it for breakfast tomorrow!

• Interesting that on the one day this week that I was away for 24 hours, and therefore did not visit the chickens all day, I found an egg on the floor of the coop that looked like a shell-less egg, but there was a very thin half of a shell on it.  The egg was intact even without the shell. I wonder if Big Red stressed about me not visiting them throughout the day? 
• We got another thin, broken egg on the coop floor at the end of this week.   She didn't lay the day before so perhaps she was holding this one over night.  Looks like she laid it from the roost, which aided in is breaking when it hit the floor (deep litter can only do so much cushioning).

Week ending Thursday, June 20th. We had 2 eggs with a nice shells. (Only three days since last count)

• I do believe that Big Red is loving her air conditioned coop because we've had 2 perfect eggs since it was installed.  She can now go inside and take her time laying her egg without cooking her brain in their.   I also installed some 'cool' hippie curtains over the nest boxes.  She likes them :-)
• We haven't had a single thin or broken egg this week, and no eggs without shells either.  I've been pumping up the calcium treats this week.  That combined with the cooler coop because of the air conditioner may be having a positive effect.

Week ending Monday June 17th, this week we got 2 good eggs from Big Red

• She did lay 2 others but they had very thin shells, and 1 other had no shell at all.  I think the heat was bothering her inside the coop.
• Interesting side note: we ate her first 5 eggs this week and 3 of the 5 were double yolked.

Week ending Monday June 10th, we had had 4 viable eggs

• Big Red laid 6 eggs but 4 of them broke immediately because of soft-shell, which I think we might have fixed, but it may continue a little longer just because she is a new layer.  

Beginning June 4th, 2013 we got our first egg from Big Red.

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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Big Red Laid an Egg! Plus, Fixing a Soft Shell Problem.

Big Red laid an egg!  On just her 2nd day (she came on a Sunday night, laid an egg on Tuesday morning) with us she laid an egg!  We were very excited because this is officially the first egg in our flock (even though it came form an already laying hen).  Big Red is 5 months old, and according to her previous owner, she has been laying for about a month now.  What was so surprising was that she started laying in her new home so quickly.  I read that if you move a laying hen to a new coop she may stop laying for several weeks and a month is not uncommon.  So for her to lay an egg the 2nd day she was here was quite a surprise.

The next day she laid another egg -but she did this while sitting on the low perch in the coop!  The shell was so soft that it broke on impact.  I read about this happening with new layers.  I figure if human women can 'accidentally' give birth in the toilet then I would not worry about this oops moment.  The 3rd day Big Red laid her egg in the nest box again, but the shell was so very thin that the egg must have burst almost immediately.  I was concerned that she was eating only the chick starter and not her layer mix feed, or that she wasn't getting enough oyster shells and crushed egg shells.  I currently had them in a small dish near her food but I wasn't sure she was getting them so I mixed them in with the laying feed and refilled the feeder.

Most importantly I needed to make sure she was actually eating her layer feed and not the chick starter.  So that evening I moved her feeder up to a higher elevation so the young chicks could not reach it.  They can't even see in the feeder holes but she can easily reach in to eat.

Elevated feeder containing layer mix.

Then I moved the chick starter feeder behind my feed cans where the chicks like to hang out during the day.  I made sure there was just enough room behind the cans for the chicks to get in but not Big Red, then I wired a board in place across the front, that again allowed the chicks access but not a full-size chicken.

Feeder with Chick Starter hidden out of reach of Big Red.

As you can see from this view, they have just enough room for 3 of them to stand at the feeder, which is about all that normally eats at one time anyway.

Top view of hidden chick starter filled feeder.

(I don't like this feeder because the angle of the opening allows the chicks to scoop their food out and onto the ground, so the next day I made another double sided feeder with the two 90 degree cups...they help to prevent food spillage.)

Big Red went to town on her elevated feeder filled with laying feed, oyster shells, and broken egg shells.  I think she feels special that the chicks cannot reach it.  So now at least I know she will be getting the proper feed plus the shells that she needs to make thicker egg shells.


The evening after she laid the egg from the perch is when I elevated and hid the feeders so that each chicken could only eat the food for their particular stage.  When she laid her 3rd egg in the nest box that was so thin it broke immediately, she had only been eating her layer only feed for about 1/2 day.

On the morning of the second day of eating layer only feed, I heard her making a racket in the coop and went out to discover she laid another egg (1 every day so far) and this one was much bigger than the one she laid the first day, and the shell was not thin at all.

See a comparison of the 4th and 1st eggs she laid.

Egg on the right is from 1st day, on the left is 4th day.

On day 5 she laid another beautiful brown egg, much browner in color and with a nice strong shell.  She obviously is now getting the right mix of laying feed, oyster shells, and crushed egg shells.  And she isn't stressing about her new home either.  I can't wait until all of my girls are laying...this is like getting a little chocolate on your pillow each morning!  Well, except its an egg instead of chocolate.

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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Did this post stir something inside of you? If so, Please leave me a comment, I would love to know what you're thinking!!!