Chickens, and things related

[4720 OWNER]

Even though the chicken house has a window in it it is still pretty dark during the day if i happen to go in there. The power to run the bulb is not that much when you look at the price of whatever they sell in the grocery store, not to mention the disease of the week they are peddling as well!!

The muscovy duck that wanders around (very old) has been in with the billy the last couple days. I think he figured out he could steal grain from him, while the does probably just butted him out of the way. Was kind of cute seeing him in there though, VERY pleased with himself. The 'scovy is tough enough to even keep the dogs at bay!!

 

[Tororider]

Chickens waterer froze last night, I think I am going to have to add an incandescant lightbulb in there on a timer just to keep things from freezing up.

 

[dooleysm]

Yep, mine froze up the other day too, and it wasn't all that cold out. Obviously below freezing, and below normal for this time of year, but nothing like we'll face in another month or so.

Anyway, I went out and bought a heated waterer on Wednesday. In the two mornings since then, not a hint of ice on the water.

I've gotten 3 eggs each of the past 2 days, but none the day before. When I got home last night around 5:15 all the chickens were in the coop on their roosts. I may have to break down and give them all day supplemental light. I'm off all week next week, with no real plans, except for Thanksgiving, so I'll be able to watch their habits a bit closer. Maybe I can figure out when they're laying, how the artificial light is affecting their habits, if they're spending any time outside, etc.

 

[dooleysm]

$35 for the 3 gallon heated waterer at Rural King.

Man, am I ever glad I ran that outlet out there last a couple months ago!

 

[dooleysm]

After a week of watching the chickens, fiddling with their light, and talking to some of my wife's relatives that raise chickens, I've got their light coming on before dusk and turning off after dawn. That gives them pretty well 24 hour light. I have noticed over the past week that I have been getting 3 eggs every day, whereas the couple weeks before that I was lucky to get 3, often getting 1 or 2 and sometimes none.

On Saturday I got my first green egg in probably a month, plus 3 brown ones. The green egg and one brown egg were laid before I got out there to check, so before about 6:30, well before sunrise. Yesterday I got 1 green and 4 brown! A Thanksgiving miracle! I didn't get out to check until later in the morning, since it was not nice out.

I think the light is starting to work, finally.

 

[Tororider]

After putting a water heater out there for them I am thinking that since I ran the extension cord out there, I might as well run a little halogen lightbulb so I can start getting eggs again. So I am glad to hear that your light seems to be paying off.

 

[dooleysm]

Seems to be making some bit of difference. Another week or so and I should have better info for you. I'm using a CFL, so no extra heat for the chickens, but they seem to be doing good. We had several days with lows in the teens and highs in the low 30's and they did fine with no extra heat. Good luck!

 

[schmism]

we ran a non-light heater on a thermostat last year and a light on a timmer to add more daylight hrs at the begining of the day (came on at about 3 am)

this year we are useing a red heat lamp to both keep water from freezeing and it adds just enough light to keep the girls laying (or so it seems)

out of my 10 girls they had dropped off to about 4-5 a day.... but now that ive added the heat lamp they are back up to about 8 a day.

red heat lamp runs from about 4pm overnight to 9 am so far we have had no frozen water with temps as low as 20deg.....

well see what happens when it gets to the single digits

 

[dooleysm]

I did the math on running a heat lamp instead of the CFL and it's 10 times more. Of course, that's 10 times more than $.50/month, so not bad, but still. The hens seem to be responding (finally!) to the additional light. I got another green and 4 browns last night. I'm really close to declaring a success on this effort! I'm happy to more than double my egg production for $.50/month.

 

[dooleysm]

For the past week I've been getting 4 (only once), 5, or 6 eggs/day. My high this summer was 9 (a couple times, normal was 8), but one of my layers died earlier in the fall, so I think I'm doing good. I declare the dusk-dawn lighting to be a success in my case, I highly recommend it!

We've had quite a bit of cold (lows in the low 10's, highs in the low 30's), snowy weather, more than normal for this time of year. The chickens have done just fine in the uninsulated, unheated coop.