Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[CntryBoy777]

I must admit Mike that last pic that I got and shared is the wallpaper on my phone....if that tells ya anything....
Sometimes I catch myself just looking at the phone....

 

[Bruce]

in spite of the change to cold weather.

Cold weather

 

[Latestarter]

Yaaa... Bruce wouldn't know anything about that "cold" weather... I been there brother... I know.

 

[Bruce]

Hey it was above freezing ALL night and ALL day!
Supposed to be bouncing around the 32° mark tomorrow, slight warming Monday and might even hit the mid 40s Tuesday

 

[Southern by choice]

Tomorrow will be chilly. Tuesday though should be 68!
Really don't like cold. @Bruce cannot understand living where you do

Mike- great weight gain (pup not you- I don't know if you are gaining weight or not ) at this age 5lbs a week is good. In a few months you will want to see more of 3lbs-5lbs....
Keep up a good deworming schedule.

Love to hear how the fecal analysis goes for you.

 

[babsbag]

@Baymule How many more hours of light are you giving them? I have about 50 chickens and zero eggs right now. I have never had NO eggs.

 

[Mike CHS]

@Bruce I have spent some time at Antarctica and still think anything under 40 is cold.

babs - the chickens are getting 14 hours of light. It's set on a timer and comes on at 4 in the morning when the roosters are crowing anyway and goes off at 6 in the evening.

@Southern by choice I will post about the fecals. We are going to try to do some this weekend. I'm still getting used to a dog that grows this fast as all I can do is go by his for and how much he wants to eat. He still quits when he has had enough so that helps.

 

[Bruce]

My understanding is that it is better for the chickens to have natural sundown and artificial sunrise. Possibly since they won't go to roost until it starts to get dark? They see very poorly in the dark. I know mine gravitate toward the barn as the sunlight gets more flat and into the coop as it starts to get darker but there is still plenty of light for them to get up on the roosts.

Though that would mean your light comes on at 2 AM! Maybe a hybrid system where there are a couple of lights on separate timers, the last one to go off some distance from the coop windows so it doesn't go full dark all of a sudden?

 

[Mike CHS]

You might be right Bruce but I prefer not to try to "fix" something that is already working. We are getting as many eggs now as when it was warm.

 

[Bruce]

Agreed. Though my understanding is light is the key, temperature not so much.

I still don't quite understand it all though. The "rule" is you need 14 hours minimum light for winter laying. But my girls generally start back up sometime in February when there isn't even 12 hours of light and it is colder than it is now.