Homesteading Chicken Coop Build, Chickens, Pond, Garden & Projects

Huh. not sure what I thought alfalfa looked like, but it certainly wasn't that. So thanks for posting the picture and link. I love the smell of alfalfa when I pass by bags of it in the local home and garden store.

 

That's a good high protein forage for your girls. Maybe you could find a small amount of seed and plant a patch for them. I try and find some good leafy alfalfa bales (small squares) and toss a sheaf into the ladies at least once a week in the winter. Good scratching and keeps the yolks nice and orange.

 

Is the little bale kind of like silage? Slighty moist and fermented smelling perhaps? Ya might have to ask your hubby about the smell. Hard to say where the plant you have came from, would be interesting to find out (it'll probably be a mystery forever). That would probably be a good supplement for the winter if it's not too expensive or you can't purchase good leafy bales from a local farmer.

Alfalfa doesn't grow well here, winters are too cold. I'd say a 3x8 patch should do for your ladies. You have 6 or so correct? Alfalfa is a cut and come again crop so you could cut and dry some for winter if they don't eat it all. Experience will be your guide I guess. Sure glad you found that tasty treat.

 

Hows everyones chickens laying? My small flock of 5 only has one maran laying daily, the others haven't started yet but I've been saying "any day now" for about a month. Got another 7 chicks about 9 weeks old separated in the run....I think I'm pretty over the chick stage for this year.

 

Our 7 hens were averaging 3-5 eggs per day. Lately it has been 3

 

6 of the girls will be 17 weeks on saturday and the jersey girls will be 16 weeks. Maybe by the end of the month I'll have some eggs. For now the only eggs in the boxes are 2 golf balls and some gourd eggs my wife found at an antique store.

 

I put fake eggs in mine too and my laying hen seemed to figure out the drill pretty quickly. Have yet to find any eggs anywhere but the nesting box. Only issue I had was they kept eating the straw i put in there but they've seemed to cut that out.

 

My girls are struggling and I am throwing in the towel. Yes the 4 of them are going to the farm Saturday! We are going to start fresh in the spring with chicks as everyone seems to be selling them.

I've got one who's my favorite she's had health issues for probably over a year now and hasn't laid in about a year. I've done everything, from sour crop to vent gleet (which are related) I cannot get rid of it. And won't lay anymore.

I have another who hasn't laid in about a year and half now, healthy as far as I can tell, no visible signs of anything. I check and worm all my girls.

Now I have another who's lost a TON of weight and just don't look right. Dawned on me that I "think" she's molting already so that could explain it.

My last is an Easter egger, rock solid has been laying since I got her.

 

How many years are chickens supposed to lay for? My 2 Rhode Island reds I got in March 2020, and I think my 6 Ameraucanas in May 2020. Between them, I average 5 eggs per day still. I'm kind of surprised I'm still getting anything from them to be honest. They do eat pretty well. Most of the lettuce I grow goes to them, as does the spinach and any overgrown or older squash/cucumbers. They'll eat anything from dandelion greens to watermelon rinds.