I’m Molting!
October 19th, 2015 · No Comments · Posted in farming
Our friend who delivers our eggs to his co-workers in Albany says they are “in revolt” over not receiving any for the past several weeks. I try to explain that our chickens are molting, slowing egg production to a trickle. Normally we can count on collecting nearly two dozen a day. Now we’re lucky to see a dozen.
My wife nearly blew her stack when I suggested we buy eggs at the store for ourselves and save the eggs from our hens for our customers.
It really is frustrating walking out to the orchard where the hens are foraging and time after time finding the nesting boxes empty. Still, the hens have no trouble eating the non-GMO feed we purchase for them from a local farmer. All that feed, and no eggs.
It’s normal for chickens to molt in the fall of their second year, and when they do to withhold eggs. Meanwhile, we’ve added 20 hens to our second flock–the Easter Eggers–and these new birds have yet to start laying in earnest. We were having trouble getting the new birds–Wellsummers and Cuckoo Marans–to integrate with the established Easter Eggers. We’re happy to report that all are spending the nights together in the coop. But eggs, not so much.
My wife reminds me that last time we raised new hens it wasn’t until December that the birds we got as chicks in the spring really started to lay. So hope springs eternal–we will have eggs soon enough.
Meanwhile, how to appease those restless egg lovers out there?
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