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It's been a month since we brought home our 60+ Amber hens. They layed a lot of eggs the first several days (about 40 eggs per day or so), then stopped. Completely stopped. I'm now lucky to get 1 egg per day.
I've been told & read that this is normal, that the trauma caused by the move can cause them to stop laying for a time (and 3 very excited, energetic boys chasing them around for a couple of weeks probably didn't help!).
They weren't eating a lot the first couple of weeks, and now it's like they're starving. The 60 hens are eating me out of house & home. They're going through about 1/2 a bag of feed a day (about 20 pounds of feed). So, combining the hens & baby chicks, I'm going through about $10 in feed per day and getting nothing... nothing... nothing... in return.
For the record, I can feed my family of 5 humans for less per day than I'm spending on chicken food! Plus the chickens are getting all of our kitchen scraps, and are outdoors to scratch for bugs & grass all day long. My goodness!
Trying to be patient here, but really this is difficult. I'm hoping they start to lay soon! I have friends who know how to butcher them, and I'm hoping I don't have to call them because the chickens have spent all of our money on their food.
Send some egg-inducement thoughts our way - Wishful Acres needs some eggs soon!!!
Thanks for visiting the Wishful Acres Farm blog, where the vegetable crops are growing and the hens are not laying.
Stop feeding them so much. Hens that are overweight will not lay. Make sure you feed them laying mash and don't give them scratch right now. You can also try putting some ground cayenne pepper in their food and some apple cider vinegar in their water both will likely help.
ReplyDeletewhoa... that is quite the pickle. I hope they perk up and earn their keep!
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