Any hens laying yet?

[Diane]

I think mine have started to think about it - combs going dark pink. I miss going out to the henhouse and harvesting nice warm eggs.

[Motherwoman]

Hi Diane,

I have leghorn bantams and I haven't had to buy eggs for over a year. They drop right off in the winter but usually 1 or 2 of the point of lay young hens will start in the late autumn and give me 1-2 eggs a day all through the winter. The number of eggs has started to increase over the last couple of weeks and from 8 hens I'm getting around 4 eggs a day.

They are small eggs though and you need 6 for decent omelette! They are also free range and at the moment are enjoying the presence of sheep in the field next door...yum yum...

MW

[robo]

Most of mine are rescue birds from blackpool zoo 2 are from a friend of my daughters, they stopped laying in september but with a bit of extra care and a good talking too I started to get eggs around late october its all hit and miss last weekend I got 5 in one day since its been 2 or 3 per day mainley 2, but the wife is still backing past herself so no complaints from me

[Diane]

Guess mine are just having an extra long holiday then.

Robo - just wondered what "backing past herself" meant? That's a new saying for me.

[robo]

Sorry, I meant baking, spelling was my worst subject at school, playing rugby and milk monitor was my best

[PLUMPUDDING]

Two sunny days and extra light from the blanket of snow has triggered the egg laying hormones in my hens, so after just one or two eggs a day from my nine hens for a couple of months I was amazed to get eight eggs today - even a beautiful blue one from the cream legbar which was the last one to moult.

They have been very funny in the snow today - the first they have seen.
Some wouldn't come out of the hut and others tried to fly over it without putting their feet down. Two got stranded in the middle and daren't move and I had to rescue them by carrying the to a bit of soil under a tree. Anyway they managed to get into the nest boxes to lay, so weren't too upset.

[Motherwoman]

I was surprised by the egg collection today too. My girls have gone from 1 or 2 a day to 8 this evening when I went down the garden to check on them. I have 11 hens in total so that's good going. Scrambled eggs for breakfast tomorrow I think.

Other half wondered if they would eat cooked Brussel sprouts.... could be interesting!

MW

[robo]

Funny things are chickens
i came back from spain around a month ago we have 8 young point of lay chickens and 1 old girl we kept when we had a cull in september all had stopped laying ,after 2 weeks of treating them to dried cat food mixed with a couple of hand fulls of corn first thing in the morning all they get is layers pellets i have also started to put a vitamin suppliment in the drinking water as well as white wine vinegar, they started to lay a couple of eggs a day then it went to 3 a day for nearly 2 weeks , tuesday we had none ,wednesday we had 2 ,christmas day the girl i share them with got 3 ,boxing day none, today i went down to feed them and found 6 waiting for me none was in the nesting box's, vicky my chicken sharer put the padlock on the coup door yesterday something i have not done since my return ,i thought we might be having them taken each morning as one of the guys near our plot is having the same problem, the lock is on again today see what the morning brings

[Chantal]

My 6 remaining girls went from 4 eggs a week to an average of 4 eggs a day this week. We had 6 eggs on one day, although one had no shell and another was tiny with no yoke. They are trying very hard though

[PLUMPUDDING]

Even the cockatiel has laid some eggs this week - must be nearly spring!

[Motherwoman]

And one of my girls has decided to go broody, I hooked her off and told her she was a bit previous! Have to watch out again this evening, don't want her on the ground in the laying pot overnight.

MW