I usually use straw on the floor, but after reading through a number of blogs I'm going to try to use pine shavings and I bought a manure fork that will sift out the chicken poop. Hopefully I won't have the traditional spring yuck to clean up next year.
Last night the chickens were all on their roosts and I finally got a count on the number of layers I have... 47 laying chickens. Am I getting eggs? No. Well o.k., about one egg every other day. Pitiful, isn't it? I can tell that a lot of them are molting and a number of them are just too young. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. But heads will roll if I ever have to buy eggs... literally!
I am greatly relieved to see this post. I have about 70 hens, 15 or so are 6 month older, and despite lavish (ha) care are laying 1-6 eggs per day. Ridiculous. And some of the newbies are sleeping and pooping in the nest boxes so unless I am right there they are yucky for the ones who actually might want to lay an egg. Husband is on tap to start butchering older ones (we skin old biddies, much faster, and I can see the difference easily in the freezer. Trying to figure out how to do a cloth. I think I would use sacrificial fabric and just staple it on. Must think on this.
ReplyDeleteI can certainly relate! Sometimes when you read the blogs you feel like everything is going so well for everyone and you're the only one have problems. It's almost a relief when you find out that most of us are working out problems!
ReplyDeleteI used landscape cloth for the cloth in front of the laying boxes. It's just what I had handy. I got home late and had to boot chickens out of the boxes last night to put it down!
I was told production picks up if a chicken gets 7 minutes of light every hour. I guess they even have timers for the task.
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