CHICKENS

[RESleight]

Hens look so funny when panicked and they try to run away at full speed. Especially the hens with the excessive feathering near the legs. They appear as if they're wearing pants.

 

[Ezra]

 

[Mary Terry]

Hens look so funny when panicked and they try to run away at full speed. Especially the hens with the excessive feathering near the legs. They appear as if they're wearing pants.

They remind me of pajamas

Every time I toss tomatoes or berries into the chicken yard, they go crazy - chasing the one who gets a cherry tomato or a blackberry in its beak while ignoring all the other tomatoes and berries on the ground. They aren't very smart, LOL.

 

[RESleight]

Pajamas. Yes exactly. Baggy pants, lounge wear, and feathers.

It's true. They're so dumb and amusing to watch.

 

[RESleight]

Someone should have re-routed those chickens before it was too late

 

[tree]

 

[RESleight]

 

[Mary Terry]

Does anyone know how to keep the chickens laying eggs during the dark winter months? My 6 hens are producing only 2 or 3 eggs per day now. They usually lay 5 or 6 eggs per day during summer.

 

[tree]

Does anyone know how to keep the chickens laying eggs during the dark winter months? My 6 hens are producing only 2 or 3 eggs per day now. They usually lay 5 or 6 eggs per day during summer.

You could try using light on them to regulate their cycle.

Supplemental Lighting in the Chicken Coop | The Prairie Homestead
https://hort.purdue.edu/tristate_organic/poultry_2007/Light Management.pdf

Don't overdo it, though.
Woman down the road figured that if a certain number of hours stimulated the
chickens to lay eggs, then keeping the lights on 24/7 would really do the job.
Poor birds were frantic and cranky, pecking each other. There is a limit to how
much light they can tolerate.

 

[Mary Terry]

You could try using light on them to regulate their cycle.

Supplemental Lighting in the Chicken Coop | The Prairie Homestead
https://hort.purdue.edu/tristate_organic/poultry_2007/Light Management.pdf

Don't overdo it, though.
Woman down the road figured that if a certain number of hours stimulated the
chickens to lay eggs, then keeping the lights on 24/7 would really do the job.
Poor birds were frantic and cranky, pecking each other. There is a limit to how
much light they can tolerate.

Thanks, @tree. I'll put a timer on the light so it will automatically turn on and off are set times.

 

[RESleight]

 

[Mary Terry]

I watched a cooking show on PBS the other day about Jewish food and how to make matzo balls. They said the best matzo balls are made with the fat (schmaltz) from "spent chickens". Spent chickens are old laying hens who get really fat and don't lay good eggs anymore.

We have always just let our old hens retire from laying and become fat old pets. Eventually they die.

Has anyone here ever harvested and cooked an old hen like that? I'm not opposed to trying it if hubby will kill the chicken. I can't handle doing that.

 

[Magna]

We have an addition of 26 new members to our family. The picture is red because they're getting warmth from a red heat lamp.

 

[tree]

The two my aunt brought back from visiting relatives
in Tennessee. They hatched in November, 2020. She
is raising them indoors, so far.

 

[Mia]

https://www.motherearthnews.com/hom...ping-backyard-chickens-in-the-winter-zbcz1503

 

[Mary Terry]

We have a heat lamp in the chicken house on a timer to gives an extra four hours per day of light. Because our climate is so mild, compared with northern places like Canada and Minnesota, and the chickens are wearing down jackets, we really don't have to worry about the cold. It snowed here a little bit a couple of weeks ago and the chickens were afraid to go outside. It was their first time to experience snow. LOL. My cats didn't like it either. But it melted within 24 hours.

 

[tree]

Chicken eyeglasses - Wikipedia

 

[Mia]

The Art of Doing Stuff, and short videoes of a person giving different types of food to her chickens to see if they like it.

Will they eat it? Archives | The Art of Doing Stuff

 

[Mary Terry]

The Art of Doing Stuff, and short videoes of a person giving different types of food to her chickens to see if they like it.

Will they eat it? Archives | The Art of Doing Stuff

I wonder where she got the live mealworms. My chickens love the dried worms, tomatoes, cucumbers but not pickles, and if she had called the cooked cornmeal "polenta" instead of cornmeal mush, then I bet the Italian chickens would eat it.

 

[tree]

3D Printed T-Rex Arms For Chicken