The Hens

Something like 440 eggs to date from the 6 hens we have living with us.  They started laying in August(?), ya, I think it was August.  For a few weeks it was an egg or two a day and a few malformed at that.  Then about 2 weeks after the first egg arrived we were getting a good 5 or 6 a day.  Just this last week the laying rate has slowed.  I attribute this to the shortness of the day and the cold setting in.

The Brown leg horns were the most inconsistent, and the last to start laying, but they are the ones still laying now. The Red sex link were the first to lay and the most consistent, but were the first to stop laying.  The Tetra's are still laying, but miss every so often.

Having the 3 pairs of hens makes it easy to keep track of who's doing what, it makes it pretty easy to keep a count while working out in the yard and being aware of predators.

We have had our share of predators around.  Hawks sometimes circle but the "girls" take to the wineberry bushes and the dog keeps watch.  One day I caught a Fox about 10 feet from one of the girls, and chased him into the woods.  That was months ago and we haven's seen him since.

We have been feeding them a cup of organic grain/feed in the morning and again in the evening.  They usually finish this, although sometimes they leave a bit in the evening.  During the day the birds are truly free range and can roam as far as they want to.  On occasion I have gone out and herded them back closer to the house but only when I was concerned for their welfare.  They do tend to find thickets to hang out in during the day, especially when it was hot out.  I often just leave the dog out to sit up on the hill and keep watch.  Reminds me of the old Looney Tunes cartoon with the sheep dog and the coyote.

The girls have gotten to know my call to them and come running when I go out and call them.  I do this at mid day when I bring them a snack, usually of corn on the cob, in season, and now dried corn from the summer mixed with sunflower seeds and ground cherries, apple cores.....During the summer when there is plenty for them to forage, I give them less, but now there is not much out there and they need the energy to keep warm, so I give them a bit more.

With the cost of the feed we are spending under five cents and egg, or were when laying was more regular.  Maybe with the winter laying being less we might safely average about spending twice that.  Still ten cents an egg is pretty good in my figuring.

I'd love to get them to eat some of the sun chokes that grow here in large amounts.  Those and the ground cherries grow here like weeds so to get them to feed the hens would be wonderful.  I might try making a mash out of them and see how they like it.