Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The Layers

The HenHouse
The Layers (Pullets)  & "Heart Sparkles"
                                                  
"Smartimiss"

"Stinky Momma" & The first five chicks we hatched.

The Coops & the Brooding Box

Baby Leghorn, Shortty & Me

"Broodimiss" 
We got our first laying hens in the spring of 2010. They were our neighbors old layers... retired if you will. They were molting and looked a little worse than I had anticipated. The neighbour assured us that their “vents” were moist and this was a sign of a good layer. It was true they were decent layers. In June of the same year I drove out to Harding Heights Farm and picked up 5 Bantam Silver Phoenix crosses. 2 roosters and 3 hens. They were (and still are) pretty cute little birds. We had to build a second enclosure for them as the retired old layers would not let them into the coop. So we built a “tractor” style moveable coop for them. Soon enough they had started laying and we were ready to order “pullets” for fall & winter laying. We ordered 6 brown Isa's and donated our retired layers. We were immediately able to incorporate the bantams with the pullets as they were similar in size and age at that time. Having 2 roosters in the same enclosure worked for about 6 months. One day one of the roosters decided or naturally became the dominant one. This left the other rooster constantly fighting for a chance to eat and fertilize.
My sister had 2 Aricauna birds at her place and one night an animal got into their coop and took one of the birds, so our niece brought over her lonely Aricauna affectionately name “Heart Sparkles”. Heart Sparkles had a hard time joining the “pecking Order” and become somewhat aggressive and constantly made a mad dash for the door when it was opened for feeding. After almost a year of chasing Heart Sparkles around and the less dominant rooster being picked on we decided to find them both a home together.
We had planned to hatch our own layer this year as well as order a dozen “Leghorns” which we had not had in the past. We waited for our bantams to become “broody” and if you have ever had bantams you know they do. We could tell the first hen had gone broody as she would not leave the laying box and screamed at us every morning as we removed the eggs she had collected through the night. So we went ahead and built a “brooding box”. We used an old wooden amp, removing all of its components and adding a couple hinges and some chicken wire and voila! We decided to use the Isa's eggs under the hen which we affectionately name “Stinky Momma”. In March, after 21 days of incubating her eggs Stinky Momma hatched 5 cute little chicks. Lucky for us 4 were hens and 1 rooster.
We continued this process allowing all three of our bantams to raise hens of their own. “Smartimiss” hatched 3 eggs. 2 hens and 1 rooster. That one rooster Lauren  had to save after Smartimiss rejected him right after birth. Literally tossed him aside.... He (George) was motionless and still wet from his egg sack, Lauren was able to revive him with a hot water bottle and low setting on the blow dryer. Today George is healthy and strong... but he is a rooster.... This morning “Broodimiss” hatched the first 5 of her 7 eggs. She rejected one egg about a week ago. If a hen rejects and egg it is because she knows it will not survive the incubation process. So she sits with one egg left to hatch. I assume when we get home today she will have 6 little chicks under her.
So now we have 6 of last years pullets, which are still laying an egg a day each. We sell their eggs to pay for their food. We have the 12 leghorns to replace them in September at which time we will retire our current layers to someone else as they still have a lot of laying left in them. We also have Stinky Mommas 5 chicks who are now 19 weeks old. Smartimiss' 3 chicks who are now 10 weeks old, and now we have Brootimiss' chicks who are all 1 day old. That being said we have at least 13 bantam isa X's and the 3 bantam mommas and one bantam rooster. In total that makes a whopping 35 chickens...

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