Selfsufficientish.com

We have 9 and are having 4-6 eggs a day, only feed them layers and corn.

President Bartlet wrote:Well I followed Richie' sexample and fed them some nice porridge on Sunday and what do we have Monday- a lovely egg, laid, we suspect by one of the young 'uns who'd never laid before. Coincidence? I think not.

yes a coincidence - i think.

some of my new pullets have come into lay, without the use of porridge.

I can beat that...

I got my new flock of hens back in May..

They costs me this so far:

£40 for the new cage when they were chicks
£100 in wood and materials for the new ark/pen that I've got them them into today
£30 in medical stuff like red mite powder etc.

£xx in feed!! I dunno alot lol..

But out of that I've had 4 welsummer boys for the table (2 left in freezer - last one had be dispose off as it didn't smell yet during cooking at all), 2 welsummer hens, 3 white Cochin hens, 1 Cochin Boy and a Brahma hen - all born in May.. not one egg yet

Edit: Just gone to read some more on the breeds - the Brahma and Cochin takes 2 years to start - oh well... I hope the welsummer start soon lol

All mine stopped laying a month ago, moulting... one or two are nice and fluffy again, but still no eggs.

So is this porridge thing a serious idea?

mine love porridge. The like anything that's been warmed up a bit, including peas and sweetcorn, milk-soaked bread, all sorts. When their water kept freezing I would throw all the cold water out and replace it with hand-hot water into their bowl and they loved it.

dave45 wrote:All mine stopped laying a month ago, moulting... one or two are nice and fluffy again, but still no eggs.

So is this porridge thing a serious idea?

I don't know about the porridge hurrying up laying, I think patience is more likely to do the trick but don't despair. My 2nd winter hen went off lay on 10/11 and had a moult and I thought that was that until about Feb but she presented us with an egg on Xmas Day and another one on Tuesday. If I get just 2 a week it's better than nothing and was totally unexpected. Your girls (depending on their ages) will probably start up again soon enough.

hens notices when the days start to lengthen.

mine are laying now. not all of them.. but we have a developing egg mountain now.. (still no porridge)

I am a bit slow on finding this thread. Nowt new there...

Hens need 15 hours of daylight hitting the tops of their heads to stimulate egg production. 1st year layers are the exception. If 1st years come to point of lay in the autumn they will produce through the winter. "I have started so I will finish"....

Commercial outfits have lighting in the houses which does not actually wake the birds up (or so the theory goes). The light hitting their heads is enough. I have done this with mine in the past - a low energy lamp on a timer plug that I altered on the first of every month (I found a table somewhere on the internet showing a daylight curve which I adapted).

As said previously, this does knacker the birds out as they don't get a wee rest in tht winter. It could be argued though that upping their protein intake and/or feeding them warm mash helps stop this. The increased protein or warm mash tops up their body heat, so they don't need to use up what normal food they would eat in keeping warm. Grain in the late afternoon helps this too.

Commercial birds are done away with on 75 week (ish) cycles, not specifically because they become less productive, but because the vaccines they are injected with (so the eggs can be sold as Class A) only lasts for 75 weeks. So a combination of re-vaccination costs plus lowered output means replacing the birds is more economical. I think 1800 birds is quite typical in a commercial shed for layers, so if each hen goes down from 7 to 6 eggs a week, that's 1800 eggs less for the producer.

On the porridge on a Sunday - egg on the Monday scenario, it takes 25 hours for an egg to be made, so it is possible depending on the timings, but I do think it would be coincidence.