Chicken Keeping Secrets

“Dear Duncan, Thanks you for what you do we have learned so much from you and Wendy. Like a lot of your readers we are new with chickens as well. We have a few young hens and a rooster who we think is the coolest. We are worried about the rooster in the hen house when they start laying eggs. Like all roosters he likes to make sure his heritage carry on, he is already trying to do his thing. My wife and I are concerned we are going to be eating fertile eggs? Sounds silly but should the rooster leave the hen house?” ~ Dan & Family

Dan, don’t ever think a question is silly, I’m glad you wrote.

Some people even believe that fertile eggs are more nutritious.

I’ve tried to find research on the subject but was unable to locate anything but opinion.

What I know with certainty is that fertile eggs are fine to eat.

If we look to our past and the farmers of yesteryear, we realize that it is very likely that most eggs consumed on the family farm were fertile.

Before there were grocery stores and mail-order chicks, a rooster was an extremely important part of the flock. Without the rooster a flock would only survive one generation. Eggs were a staple in the diet and the flock must continue to procreate. (more…)

I had another question I planned to answer this week but received an e-mail today that I think takes precedence over my original plan.

You see, we received word of a chicken that had died because it had apparently eaten a CD that was hung for it’s entertainment as per advice from me.

My first reaction is great sadness that anything I would say would be misunderstood and cause the death of an animal. I truly want to provide you all with information you can trust and I take numerous steps to make sure that is the case.

However, I guess this was an instance where I didn’t communicate very clearly so I’d like to take this space to clarify not only this issue but a few others.

To combat boredom, which typically leads to destructive behavior, I had suggested hanging old Compact Discs in the run for the chickens to watch. They seem to enjoy the prisms created by the suns reflection as well as the way they spin in the wind.

I suppose I assumed that readers would understand that they were to be hung high enough that the chickens could not gain access to them. (more…)

“Hello Wendy, I have 5 hens that are all under 2 years of age and I used to get 3 or 4 eggs a day. Just recently only 2 eggs are being laid. I live in Queensland Australia and the weather is definitely warming up some days are 30 degrees Celsius and over. Does the temperature affect the cycle of the hens in relation to laying an egg each day? I am treating one of the Light Sussex hens for Bumblefoot and that has been going on for over 7 weeks and attending the vet each week. Would this type of stress reduce her laying?

I have had the hens since last December 08 so I am fairly new to caring for chooks. Also I just want to add that I love getting your newsletter each week and reading everything about other peoples chooks. Kind regards” ~ Maureen Cross

Hi Maureen, thanks for the question.

I’m happy to answer a question for those of you who are experiencing hot weather these days.

Periods of high temperatures will definitely adversely effect the production of your hens.

Around here, temperatures stay around or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (around 38 degrees Celsius) for up to three months in the summer. This is dry, air, almost absent of humidity.

Each year we know that egg production will drastically decline and that a heat induced molt is coming. The molt is not really from the heat but from the stress it places on our flock, so technically it is a stress induced molt.

By the time everyone has recovered and is fully feathered again, the temperatures are starting to cool, we get another month or two of great egg production and then they start dropping feathers again for a fall / winter molt – ugh! (more…)

I don’t know about you but around here things get awfully busy at Christmas time. Despite our best efforts to keep things simple each year, it gets hectic with the gift making, the get togethers, the church productions, the cookie baking, etc.

I bring this up because of a situation we experienced recently, in the hopes of conveying an important message about the care of your animals.

You may recall that we also raise alpaca.

If you’re not familiar with alpaca, they are like a llama except their fleece is softer and we raise them for their fleece.

Last week my oldest son was out feeding the animals breakfast and came into the house devastated; one of the alpaca had died. There was no obvious reason for Mira’s death, she was just laying there.

I’ll spare you the details but suffice it to say that after a necropsy (like an autopsy for animals) we believe she ate something toxic that had blown into their pen during the strong winds we had that week.

The point in telling you this is that her death might have been prevented. (more…)