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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 252617" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>They will look out for one another.</p><p></p><p>Interesting how they eat just about everything else, but they've left your gazanias alone... I think I'll have to plant some gazanias in our backyard, our chooks kick everything else to dust.</p><p></p><p>You should be getting eggs any day now. If you want to speed things up, get some solar-powered lights and make sure they can shine into the henhouse at night. My dad said that chooks will lay as long as they get 17 hours of light a day, total. They should continue to pay through their first year, then they slow down and stop laying once daylight hours get shorter again. Commercial farmers tend to cull their layers at the end of their first year, so they don't have to 'carry' them over an unproductive winter. The alternative is lights, but rather than have lights blazing all the time, simply extending the day will do the trick without being too hard on the chooks. The chook feed is usually plenty fortified to keep them well-nourished so they don't suffer for keeping on laying. I usually add extra calcium though, by drying eggshells in the oven, grnding them up and putting the ground shell back into the feed or into the coop. And the manure they produce - I've got gardeners all round the village coming to us for it. The local commjunity garden is well-nourished courtesy of our chooks. All the grass clippings go into the chookhouse to make a deep litter bed that composts down to something wonderful for the garden.</p><p></p><p>If you keep hand-feeding the chooks, they will be more willing to be handled on those times when you need to (wing clipping, claw clipping, any first aid needed). It's good to handle them so you can get acloser feel for how they're doing. A hen can lose a lot of condition and you mightn't notice, because flock birds hide any health problems for as lnog as they can. So if you pick up the hens, feel their 'drumsticks' to make sure they're well-muscled.</p><p></p><p>They look in marvellous condition. You're doing a good job.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 252617, member: 1991"] They will look out for one another. Interesting how they eat just about everything else, but they've left your gazanias alone... I think I'll have to plant some gazanias in our backyard, our chooks kick everything else to dust. You should be getting eggs any day now. If you want to speed things up, get some solar-powered lights and make sure they can shine into the henhouse at night. My dad said that chooks will lay as long as they get 17 hours of light a day, total. They should continue to pay through their first year, then they slow down and stop laying once daylight hours get shorter again. Commercial farmers tend to cull their layers at the end of their first year, so they don't have to 'carry' them over an unproductive winter. The alternative is lights, but rather than have lights blazing all the time, simply extending the day will do the trick without being too hard on the chooks. The chook feed is usually plenty fortified to keep them well-nourished so they don't suffer for keeping on laying. I usually add extra calcium though, by drying eggshells in the oven, grnding them up and putting the ground shell back into the feed or into the coop. And the manure they produce - I've got gardeners all round the village coming to us for it. The local commjunity garden is well-nourished courtesy of our chooks. All the grass clippings go into the chookhouse to make a deep litter bed that composts down to something wonderful for the garden. If you keep hand-feeding the chooks, they will be more willing to be handled on those times when you need to (wing clipping, claw clipping, any first aid needed). It's good to handle them so you can get acloser feel for how they're doing. A hen can lose a lot of condition and you mightn't notice, because flock birds hide any health problems for as lnog as they can. So if you pick up the hens, feel their 'drumsticks' to make sure they're well-muscled. They look in marvellous condition. You're doing a good job. Marg [/QUOTE]
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