Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Are we ready, pawpaw?
Hello friends and welcome toChicken.
Every Day, a podcast for you,the backyard chicken enthusiast,
and mine.
Your host is my Pawpaw, gary,Gary Valerie of Senla Backyard
Chickens.
Here we have fun while sharingideas and learning how to care
for our foul-feathered friends.
Check out our videos at Senlathat's C-E-N-L-A Backyard
(00:24):
Chickens on YouTube, tiktok andFacebook.
So, without further ado, let'sstart today's show.
How was that?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hello everyone.
Gary, with CENLA BackyardChickens here with you again,
welcome to the podcast, welcometo the show.
Today we're going to dosomething a little bit different
.
I am just going to talk off thecuff, nothing prepared, about
what's been going on with myflock over the last two to three
months, and I think this may besomething that I'm going to do
(00:55):
on a semi-regular basis.
I mean, chances are, most ofyou guys have the same type of
flock that I do, just a mixtureof backyard chickens that we
have back there.
So some of the same issues aregoing to crop up that I've had.
So let's kind of get intowhat's been going on with my
birds.
So almost three months ago,like we usually do in the spring
(01:15):
, I bought a bunch of youngchicks Okay, two day old chicks
from the local feed store.
Let's see, I've got a nakedneck.
I got two black copper marans,I got two uh olive eggers and I
got four polish okay, because mydaughter my oldest daughter,
doesn't even live with me hasbeen trying to get some polish
(01:36):
chickens from me that arefemales and they always end up
either something happens to themand they pass or they end up
being guys.
So I've got eight chicks totala few months ago, okay, and
these chicks have been growing.
If you have listened and lookedat some of my videos in the past
, you know the way I do mychicks.
The first two and a half tothree weeks they spend in the
(01:56):
brooder.
The brooder is four feet long,two feet wide, two feet high
just a small brooder to keepthese young chicks.
Once they hit three weeks ofage they go outside to the
grow-out pen.
The grow-out pen is a threefoot wide, eight foot long house
up on wheels, completelywrapped in hardware cloth.
(02:20):
It is a grow-out pen.
It is also a chicken tractor.
You can use it for that.
I also use it for what's calledchicken gel.
We'll get into that here injust a little bit.
It use a natural branch aboutthat big around or so that I put
inside there for it to roost on.
It's got heat in it.
(02:50):
It's got fans.
I have two very quiet smalllittle black fans that I have in
this thing.
If it gets very, very hot, Iturn the fans on for them.
It is very, very nice.
It enables me to run themaround the yard, keep fresh
grass under them.
But the really big thing thatthis does.
It allows the big chickens tointeract with these young chicks
(03:11):
, slash young pullets withoutbeing able to touch them.
They start getting used to oneanother so many times.
After about a week or so, Iwill go out there and the big
chicks are all sitting around,just sitting around the grow out
pen.
You know hanging out there andthe big chicks are all sitting
around just sitting around thegrow out pen.
You know hanging out with wherethe young little ones are.
So by the time they're let out,they're almost already part of
(03:33):
the flock already and I usuallyI will leave them in there
probably till they're close tofour months old.
I just took them out the otherday and I'll talk about that
with you.
But this fact that they get soused to them that by the time
you really let them startgetting out and interacting,
they're basically part of theflock already.
The way that I do that whenthey're four months old or so
(03:56):
and this was I did this about,oh, I guess about three weeks
ago I go out one day when I'mgoing to be able to spend some
time with them and I open thedoor to the grow out pen and I
raise the big lid on the frontto the grow-out pen.
So now the big birds can get init, the little birds can get
out, they can all start minglingtogether.
What happens whenever I do this?
(04:17):
Because they're all so used toone another.
There's no big pecking, there'sno trying to hurt anybody.
There's always that posturing.
The big girls want to show youokay, I'm higher than you in the
pecking order, you really needto remember this.
And they chest bump and they'lldo this right here with one
another, just to show who's boss.
Nobody gets hurt and I'll letthem do that for a good two
(04:39):
weeks.
And what happens in the evenings?
The big girls go to their coop,the little young pullets, they
go to the grow-out pen.
That's where they go to bed.
Then one day I decide to makethe change.
Okay, I take away the grow-outpen.
Well, let me back up.
About a week before I remove thegrow-out pen, I move all the
water and all of their feed tothe chicken run and I have two
(05:01):
chicken runs.
One is uncovered, one iscovered.
They're both separated, butthey do have a chicken run door
between the two of them, which Iabsolutely love to be able to
work with that, and I put thefeed, their feed, their 19% or
whatever the young chick feed isand their water, all in the
enclosed run.
Inside that enclosed run isalso the chicken pen, where the
(05:23):
hens go to sleep at night, wherethey go to lay their eggs.
So the young birds get used togoing in there, coming out,
going in, because I let my birdsfree range every day they
interact with the big chickensas well.
So everybody's going in and outand I'll let them do this about
a week or so, to where I knowthat they're kind of okay with
one another doing it.
Then one day and this one daywas three days ago I'll remove
(05:46):
the grow out pin completely.
Okay, this is confusing thefirst two or three nights,
because the little ones, youknow, really have been used to
sleeping in there.
Where do they go to sleep?
Inevitably and this hashappened this time too one or
two of them.
You say, okay, I'm going inhere with the big ones and I'm
going to bed.
See you, good night.
The rest of them, I'll catchthem outside, or a lot of times
they'll be up trying to get ontop of the fence somewhere.
(06:08):
They'll just try to dosomething to get up by, and I
and I go out at night and I putthem back in in the uh to grow
out in the run.
I'm sorry where they'resupposed to go.
I did this for three nights.
The fourth night they were allin there.
The fifth night they were allin there.
The fifth night they were allin there.
So they learn really prettyfast on doing this.
But I said all this to kind ofmake a point.
(06:29):
Okay, when you bring youngchickens in, you take the big
chickens out of their normaloperating procedure.
Chickens will make any excuse inthe world to feel like they've
been stressed out and stress isone of the reasons that they
don't lay eggs.
My girls, I've got 13 hens thatare eligible for layers.
(06:49):
They're grown, they're young,they're great, they should be
good layers and two months ago Iwas getting 10 to 12 eggs a day
at least 8 to 10 or 11, 12 aday.
I mean I was getting a reallynice bit of eggs and I sell my
eggs.
I have an eggs down out front,so I really enjoy doing that.
Then all of a sudden the weatherturns bad.
(07:12):
We had a solid month ofovercast skies, raining every
day.
It is sopping wet outside.
The chickens cannot get out andreally do chicken.
They go in and out as they canbetween rainstorms, but I mean
it is just nasty and gloomyweather and the hens just quit
laying.
I went from that many eggslet's call it ten eggs a day,
(07:33):
sometimes even better, to threeand four eggs if I'm lucky a day
.
The only difference that wasgoing on, because the weather
was not all that extremely hotlike it is right now, but the
the only difference that wasgoing on because the weather was
not all that extremely hot likeit is right now, but the only
real big thing that was going onat that time these young birds
came into the story and thestress of the weather.
(07:54):
So that was two stressors thatwere on them.
That was going on right there.
The third stressor I had threehens that decided okay, we're
going to be broody.
And if you guys are new to thisgame and you don't know what
broody is, when a hen becomesbroody that means she wants to
be a mama.
She has physiological andhormonal changes that happen in
(08:15):
her body.
Her body temp raises up, shewants to hatch eggs and she's
going to get on the nest.
She's going to stay on thatnest thinking that she's going
to be hatching some eggs andthey'll do that.
If they don't have fertile eggsunder there, they'll still stay
on that nest a month, sometimeseven more.
You move them off.
We try to get them out of theway, but the problem that
(08:35):
happened with mine I wasn't ableto put them in the grow out pen
whenever all all this firststarted, because that's
generally where I would put themto move them away from the main
flock, put them in thatgrow-out pen with no nesting box
in there and try to help breakthem from being broody.
I couldn't do that because Ihad the young pullets in the
(08:55):
grow-out pen, so these threehens had to stay on the nest and
I'm constantly going out thereshooing them off of the nest.
Well, the other girls couldn'tlay eggs.
Okay, there was only one nestavailable.
Several times I caught achicken standing next to one of
the broody ones in the in theroost, trying to get some room
in there to lay eggs, and theycouldn't get in there to do it.
(09:15):
Well, it just so happened thatI knew, with these young pullets
coming up, that I was going toneed more nesting boxes.
So I had another couple builtand so I put them out there
inside the run, but the big onesreally never got used to doing
that.
So therefore we had the thirdstressor come in.
They can't get to their nestingbox all of a sudden because of
these frigging broody hens thatI have.
(09:37):
So I had these three stressors.
Egg production went to crap.
I mean it just went down.
Uh, you know two, three, foureggs a day, four if I'm lucky.
Whenever I've got 13 good,healthy hens.
So between the young biddies,the terrible weather and then
those that are on the nestblocking access to it, my girls
(09:57):
start shutting down.
So if you've ever had thesekind of problems, try to think
about the issues that areassociated with them, and it's
usually something simple likethat.
There's tons of things that'llmake a chicken stop laying eggs
Molting season.
They're all going to stopduring molting season whenever
they drop their feathers andthey grow new.
Generally this is in the fall,so they can get a good niceage
(10:20):
to get ready for for the uh,winter that's coming up shorter,
shorter hours of daylightthat's going to drop them.
Chickens need a good 14, 15hours of daylight that
stimulates something in theirbrains to get them to where they
want to lay eggs and where theywhere they will eggs.
Those two things weren'thappening over here, but the
other stressors were and mygirls were just not doing what
(10:42):
they needed to do.
So finally, about a week ago, Isaid, okay, it's time I took
the young ones away from thegrow-out pen.
I moved the grow-out penfurther out in the yard.
The young ones are now startingto go to bed at nighttime with
the big girls in there.
I took the three hens that wererobbing the nest space.
(11:02):
I put them in chicken jail Okay,and it's plenty enough room in
that grow out pen for them tohang out in chicken jail.
I left them in there a week.
I took two of them outyesterday and they seem to be
doing fine.
They seem like they broke theirbroody on there.
They haven't been back on thenest.
I'm washing them real close.
I took them out early I get itbecause I usually lay them in
(11:23):
there a week because one of myhens, a white Plymouth Rock, who
we will now name Karen she is atrue Karen.
In other words, she's a pain inthe ass and she was trying to
pick on the other ones and ifyou're from the US, you probably
know what Karen means wheneverwe talk about that.
In these cases, a Karen is nota who, it's a what.
So kind of look that up to seewhat we're talking about.
(11:45):
So I took these out.
One was a black sex link.
The other one that I took out,she's a sweet girl.
What is she?
She is a cuckoo marron and hercoloring is.
They call it cuckoo.
She's a cuckoo marron.
She lays dark eggs, notextremely dark, but they're
darker than any of the rest ofthem, of what they do.
(12:06):
And she's just a sweetheart andshe was getting picked on.
The black sex links weregetting picked on by the Karen
that I mentioned earlier, so Itook them out earlier than what
I wanted to, but it looks likemaybe, maybe, maybe, that
they're doing okay.
Okay, this has been going on fora few days now.
Now the big girls that the mainflock, they have all four
(12:28):
nesting boxes wide open to them.
So yesterday I got six eggs.
Day before yesterday I got fiveeggs.
Not sure what I'm going to gettoday.
I went peaked a little bitearlier and there was a hen on
the nest.
I don't know what was under her, but the other three nests were
empty.
And then the other two neststhat I brought in a few weeks
(12:50):
ago they were empty as well.
Usually with the two nests Ihave a couple of them not
olive-eggers but Easter Eggersthat lay a light green egg.
They kind of like to hang outin those, and those are a little
bit younger hens than some ofthe older girls, so they took to
it a lot quicker.
But that's what's been going onwith my flock here lately, just
the stresses of those young onesthat I had, the nasty-ass
(13:14):
weather that we've had, andweather can play a role, because
weather stresses out your birds.
Anything for a hen is astressor.
Chickens are creatures of habit.
They're a flock creature.
They have a flock mentality.
They want to live inside.
Anything that's different fromwhat they do day to day just
freaks them out.
Mine apparently got freaked out.
(13:34):
I went from great egg laying toreally poor egg laying and I
had customers out there goinghey, what you doing?
What's going going on.
So I just advertised onFacebook.
You know, hey, you're justgonna have to wait.
The girls are taking a littlebit of a break right now.
It seems that maybe they'restarting to perk up a little bit
more.
I certainly hope so.
Their feed is good.
Right now I'm feeding the mostexpensive Purina that I can get
(13:57):
and no, I do not subscribe tothe government making Purina.
Put something in the chickenfeed to stop the hens from
laying.
That was something that wasgoing on a few years back during
COVID and stuff like that.
If you haven't heard of it, I'mnot going to dig into it right
now, but it's almost hilarious.
You can look this stuff uponline.
But but suffice it.
Say I feed them a really goodquality feed this time of of
(14:19):
year, when it's really hot, Ibump up the protein level.
So I've gone from a 16% proteinlayer feed to a 18% protein
layer feed.
Give them a little bit moreboost.
They need that in the summer.
The same thing in the winter.
I go from 16% to 18% in thewinter because it takes more
energy to drive their bodies inthe winter than it does the
(14:41):
summer.
But protein is important foryour hands just as much as
calcium is.
Protein drives the mechanismthat creates the egg.
Protein is what keeps theirfeathers healthy.
Protein is what keeps theirliver function going the way
that it should their enzymes intheir digestive system.
Protein is very, very important.
The egg album, the white partof the egg, is mostly protein.
(15:06):
Okay, protein is a big big dealand in the summertime, when the
birds are stressed, they're noteating as much because of the
fact that they're laying aroundin the heat.
They need more protein.
In the wintertime, it takesmore energy to keep their bodies
warm, so therefore they needmore protein.
In the wintertime, it takesmore energy to keep their bodies
warm, so therefore they needmore protein, and so I bump
their feet up to do that.
So I know it's not a feed issue.
(15:28):
They get snacks quite regularlyand I use black soldier fly
larvae.
That's the snacks that I usewhen it's real hot.
I'll do little treats for themthat's half for me as much as
they are for him them.
But I will slice up some uh,blackberries.
I will slice up some grapes,put them in a little ice tray,
fill ice with them and bringthem out to the girls.
(15:49):
They love.
Pecking those things aparthelps cool their bodies down.
At the same time, when we hit,when we eat watermelon around
here and that's a big summertreat in louisiana I will give
them watermelon love that.
I have two different compostpiles outside that we're always
bringing some vegetables andplant matter and stuff in.
I love for my chickens to jumpin there and scratch around and
(16:10):
poop and do their thing, so theyget to do that Again.
Like I said, plus, theyfree-range every day so they're
out there eating bugs andwhatever else that they can get
a hold of.
I know my girls are on a good,strong, healthy diet.
I don't have any issues withthat.
I don't really have much in theway of illness going around.
I keep a good, healthy dustbath for them and I've got a
(16:31):
video on that if you want tocheck through the archives and
look at some of the videos.
So they always have a good dustbath.
I've never had a mite problemwith them.
So what else is left for themto quit doing this laying Then?
That's what it's going to bethe stressors that they had
between the young ones and theweather coming in, not being
able to report.
(16:51):
We're back to full production.
We're not there yet, but Ithink that we're starting to
inch up a little bit, sohopefully that's going to be the
truth about the matter.
Anyway, thought you'd like toknow what's going on with my
flock right now 13 hens that aregood to go.
(17:13):
Oh, by the way, out of the fourPolish four Polish every single
one of them boy, every singleone.
Three of them that I knew thatwere guys because they started
doing the crowing thing.
You know, when they sound likethey've got a pickle in their
mouth he runs chickens on.
Sometimes he processes them.
Most of the time he lets themrun around and do their thing,
because he always likes raisingchickens and he just lets his
(17:45):
chickens raise on their own.
So it's good that I have a wayto do that, and if you're out
getting young chicks.
You need to be able to have away to deal with your roosters
that you're going to have.
Don't drop them off.
Roosters cannot live out in thewild.
They're no longer that wildbird that they were thousands of
years ago.
They are a prey animal and theywill quickly become a prey
(18:08):
animal and if they don't, theywill probably starve to death,
you know.
So it's not a good thing todrop them off.
Just make sure you get a plan.
The fourth one that I thoughtwas going to be a girl.
You know, in a Polish, the guys, the males on the Polish, the
young roosters, their hairdolooks kind of like Rod Stewart,
where the girls are more tightlybound.
(18:30):
You know, in their hairdo it'sjust a big cotton ball, like in
there.
Well, I had one white laceblack Polish I was kind of
curious about.
Well, her hair isn't just likeI think it should be, but it's
not as wild looking as theseother three and it's not crowing
.
It's not trying to crow.
So whenever I got rid of three,I kept that one.
(18:53):
Two days later afterwards itstarts trying to make a crowing
sound.
So I was going to get rid of it.
Talking with Sylvie If you guysdon't know who Sylvie is.
She's a granddaughter.
She does the introductions andthe exits on my podcast, that
Chicken's Everyday podcast, andshe wants to keep it to see how
well it does.
And the reason I haven't keptroosters in the last several
(19:15):
years is because of the attitude.
Roosters can be real assholesEvery now and then you can get a
nice one, but it's really toughto make sure that you do.
It takes a lot, a lot of workto raise a rooster to be like
that.
Hopefully we're going to beable to be successful with this
one, but I'll let her know If itdoesn't work.
That rooster's got to go to thefarmer because we can't keep
something, especially around myyoung grandchildren, that I
(19:37):
can't trust.
So I'm sure you guys wouldagree with that.
So anyway, that's what's goingon with the flock over here at
Send Lob Backyard Chickens rightnow.
Hopefully I'm going to startgetting a lot more eggs.
The heat is ramping up.
I think today's high issupposed to be 94, 95 degrees
and it's not going to get anycooler for the next month month
and a half for sure and I knowthey're going to start wanting
(19:59):
to take breaks come then.
But I want to make sure I'mdoing everything that I can do
to help maximize theirproduction, give them everything
that they want spoiling mychickens great dust bath, plenty
of nest boxes that they havegood, healthy food, plenty of
fresh, clean water every day,shade trees to hang out under
and, if I didn't mention itearlier, inside my chicken pen I
(20:23):
have a small fan and I have alarge fan.
Okay, the small fan pushes outa little bit of air.
The large fan pushes out a lotof air.
These are all on Alexa.
Yeah, I get it, I'm that guy.
So if it's really really hot atnight, I'm going to run fans
inside the coop to help keep thebirds cool, especially by
morning it's almost chilly inthere.
So I'm thinking that they'regonna appreciate that.
(20:45):
But you never know with achicken, because they're not
going to tell you how they feelabout something.
So again, I'm doing what Ithink that I should be doing in
every step of the way to keepthem healthy, happy and laying.
Hopefully we'll see whathappens here pretty soon, so in
the meantime, we'll check youlater.
Hope you enjoyed the show.
Remember to hit that likebutton, subscribe whatever you
need to do and if you happen towant to support the show, just
(21:07):
go to my buzzsprout account,check it out.
Give me a little bit of love.
Thank you, guys.
Talk with you soon.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Bye-bye that's all we have time for today.
I really hope you enjoyedlistening to the podcast.
Be sure to watch our videos.
So, on behalf of my pup, gary,and me, sylvie, thanks for
listening.
Are we ready, pawpaw?
Hello friends and welcome toChicken.
Every Day, a podcast for you,the backyard chicken enthusiast,
and mine.
Your host is my Pawpaw, gary,Gary Valerie of Senla Backyard
Chickens.
Here we have fun while sharingideas and learning how to care
for our foul-feathered friends.
Check out our videos at Senlathat's C-E-N-L-A Backyard
(00:24):
Chickens on YouTube, tiktok andFacebook.
So, without further ado, let'sstart today's show.
How was that?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hello everyone.
Gary, with CENLA BackyardChickens here with you again,
welcome to the podcast, welcometo the show.
Today we're going to dosomething a little bit different
.
I am just going to talk off thecuff, nothing prepared, about
what's been going on with myflock over the last two to three
months, and I think this may besomething that I'm going to do
(00:55):
on a semi-regular basis.
I mean, chances are, most ofyou guys have the same type of
flock that I do, just a mixtureof backyard chickens that we
have back there.
So some of the same issues aregoing to crop up that I've had.
So let's kind of get intowhat's been going on with my
birds.
So almost three months ago,like we usually do in the spring
(01:15):
, I bought a bunch of youngchicks Okay, two day old chicks
from the local feed store.
Let's see, I've got a nakedneck.
I got two black copper marans,I got two uh olive eggers and I
got four polish okay, because mydaughter my oldest daughter,
doesn't even live with me hasbeen trying to get some polish
(01:36):
chickens from me that arefemales and they always end up
either something happens to themand they pass or they end up
being guys.
So I've got eight chicks totala few months ago, okay, and
these chicks have been growing.
If you have listened and lookedat some of my videos in the past
, you know the way I do mychicks.
The first two and a half tothree weeks they spend in the
(01:56):
brooder.
The brooder is four feet long,two feet wide, two feet high
just a small brooder to keepthese young chicks.
Once they hit three weeks ofage they go outside to the
grow-out pen.
The grow-out pen is a threefoot wide, eight foot long house
up on wheels, completelywrapped in hardware cloth.
(02:20):
It is a grow-out pen.
It is also a chicken tractor.
You can use it for that.
I also use it for what's calledchicken gel.
We'll get into that here injust a little bit.
It use a natural branch aboutthat big around or so that I put
inside there for it to roost on.
It's got heat in it.
(02:50):
It's got fans.
I have two very quiet smalllittle black fans that I have in
this thing.
If it gets very, very hot, Iturn the fans on for them.
It is very, very nice.
It enables me to run themaround the yard, keep fresh
grass under them.
But the really big thing thatthis does.
It allows the big chickens tointeract with these young chicks
(03:11):
, slash young pullets withoutbeing able to touch them.
They start getting used to oneanother so many times.
After about a week or so, Iwill go out there and the big
chicks are all sitting around,just sitting around the grow out
pen.
You know hanging out there andthe big chicks are all sitting
around just sitting around thegrow out pen.
You know hanging out with wherethe young little ones are.
So by the time they're let out,they're almost already part of
(03:33):
the flock already and I usuallyI will leave them in there
probably till they're close tofour months old.
I just took them out the otherday and I'll talk about that
with you.
But this fact that they get soused to them that by the time
you really let them startgetting out and interacting,
they're basically part of theflock already.
The way that I do that whenthey're four months old or so
(03:56):
and this was I did this about,oh, I guess about three weeks
ago I go out one day when I'mgoing to be able to spend some
time with them and I open thedoor to the grow out pen and I
raise the big lid on the frontto the grow-out pen.
So now the big birds can get init, the little birds can get
out, they can all start minglingtogether.
What happens whenever I do this?
(04:17):
Because they're all so used toone another.
There's no big pecking, there'sno trying to hurt anybody.
There's always that posturing.
The big girls want to show youokay, I'm higher than you in the
pecking order, you really needto remember this.
And they chest bump and they'lldo this right here with one
another, just to show who's boss.
Nobody gets hurt and I'll letthem do that for a good two
(04:39):
weeks.
And what happens in the evenings?
The big girls go to their coop,the little young pullets, they
go to the grow-out pen.
That's where they go to bed.
Then one day I decide to makethe change.
Okay, I take away the grow-outpen.
Well, let me back up.
About a week before I remove thegrow-out pen, I move all the
water and all of their feed tothe chicken run and I have two
(05:01):
chicken runs.
One is uncovered, one iscovered.
They're both separated, butthey do have a chicken run door
between the two of them, which Iabsolutely love to be able to
work with that, and I put thefeed, their feed, their 19% or
whatever the young chick feed isand their water, all in the
enclosed run.
Inside that enclosed run isalso the chicken pen, where the
(05:23):
hens go to sleep at night, wherethey go to lay their eggs.
So the young birds get used togoing in there, coming out,
going in, because I let my birdsfree range every day they
interact with the big chickensas well.
So everybody's going in and outand I'll let them do this about
a week or so, to where I knowthat they're kind of okay with
one another doing it.
Then one day and this one daywas three days ago I'll remove
(05:46):
the grow out pin completely.
Okay, this is confusing thefirst two or three nights,
because the little ones, youknow, really have been used to
sleeping in there.
Where do they go to sleep?
Inevitably and this hashappened this time too one or
two of them.
You say, okay, I'm going inhere with the big ones and I'm
going to bed.
See you, good night.
The rest of them, I'll catchthem outside, or a lot of times
they'll be up trying to get ontop of the fence somewhere.
(06:08):
They'll just try to dosomething to get up by, and I
and I go out at night and I putthem back in in the uh to grow
out in the run.
I'm sorry where they'resupposed to go.
I did this for three nights.
The fourth night they were allin there.
The fifth night they were allin there.
The fifth night they were allin there.
So they learn really prettyfast on doing this.
But I said all this to kind ofmake a point.
(06:29):
Okay, when you bring youngchickens in, you take the big
chickens out of their normaloperating procedure.
Chickens will make any excuse inthe world to feel like they've
been stressed out and stress isone of the reasons that they
don't lay eggs.
My girls, I've got 13 hens thatare eligible for layers.
(06:49):
They're grown, they're young,they're great, they should be
good layers and two months ago Iwas getting 10 to 12 eggs a day
at least 8 to 10 or 11, 12 aday.
I mean I was getting a reallynice bit of eggs and I sell my
eggs.
I have an eggs down out front,so I really enjoy doing that.
Then all of a sudden the weatherturns bad.
(07:12):
We had a solid month ofovercast skies, raining every
day.
It is sopping wet outside.
The chickens cannot get out andreally do chicken.
They go in and out as they canbetween rainstorms, but I mean
it is just nasty and gloomyweather and the hens just quit
laying.
I went from that many eggslet's call it ten eggs a day,
(07:33):
sometimes even better, to threeand four eggs if I'm lucky a day
.
The only difference that wasgoing on, because the weather
was not all that extremely hotlike it is right now, but the
the only difference that wasgoing on because the weather was
not all that extremely hot likeit is right now, but the only
real big thing that was going onat that time these young birds
came into the story and thestress of the weather.
(07:54):
So that was two stressors thatwere on them.
That was going on right there.
The third stressor I had threehens that decided okay, we're
going to be broody.
And if you guys are new to thisgame and you don't know what
broody is, when a hen becomesbroody that means she wants to
be a mama.
She has physiological andhormonal changes that happen in
(08:15):
her body.
Her body temp raises up, shewants to hatch eggs and she's
going to get on the nest.
She's going to stay on thatnest thinking that she's going
to be hatching some eggs andthey'll do that.
If they don't have fertile eggsunder there, they'll still stay
on that nest a month, sometimeseven more.
You move them off.
We try to get them out of theway, but the problem that
(08:35):
happened with mine I wasn't ableto put them in the grow out pen
whenever all all this firststarted, because that's
generally where I would put themto move them away from the main
flock, put them in thatgrow-out pen with no nesting box
in there and try to help breakthem from being broody.
I couldn't do that because Ihad the young pullets in the
(08:55):
grow-out pen, so these threehens had to stay on the nest and
I'm constantly going out thereshooing them off of the nest.
Well, the other girls couldn'tlay eggs.
Okay, there was only one nestavailable.
Several times I caught achicken standing next to one of
the broody ones in the in theroost, trying to get some room
in there to lay eggs, and theycouldn't get in there to do it.
(09:15):
Well, it just so happened thatI knew, with these young pullets
coming up, that I was going toneed more nesting boxes.
So I had another couple builtand so I put them out there
inside the run, but the big onesreally never got used to doing
that.
So therefore we had the thirdstressor come in.
They can't get to their nestingbox all of a sudden because of
these frigging broody hens thatI have.
(09:37):
So I had these three stressors.
Egg production went to crap.
I mean it just went down.
Uh, you know two, three, foureggs a day, four if I'm lucky.
Whenever I've got 13 good,healthy hens.
So between the young biddies,the terrible weather and then
those that are on the nestblocking access to it, my girls
(09:57):
start shutting down.
So if you've ever had thesekind of problems, try to think
about the issues that areassociated with them, and it's
usually something simple likethat.
There's tons of things that'llmake a chicken stop laying eggs
Molting season.
They're all going to stopduring molting season whenever
they drop their feathers andthey grow new.
Generally this is in the fall,so they can get a good niceage
(10:20):
to get ready for for the uh,winter that's coming up shorter,
shorter hours of daylightthat's going to drop them.
Chickens need a good 14, 15hours of daylight that
stimulates something in theirbrains to get them to where they
want to lay eggs and where theywhere they will eggs.
Those two things weren'thappening over here, but the
other stressors were and mygirls were just not doing what
(10:42):
they needed to do.
So finally, about a week ago, Isaid, okay, it's time I took
the young ones away from thegrow-out pen.
I moved the grow-out penfurther out in the yard.
The young ones are now startingto go to bed at nighttime with
the big girls in there.
I took the three hens that wererobbing the nest space.
(11:02):
I put them in chicken jail Okay,and it's plenty enough room in
that grow out pen for them tohang out in chicken jail.
I left them in there a week.
I took two of them outyesterday and they seem to be
doing fine.
They seem like they broke theirbroody on there.
They haven't been back on thenest.
I'm washing them real close.
I took them out early I get itbecause I usually lay them in
(11:23):
there a week because one of myhens, a white Plymouth Rock, who
we will now name Karen she is atrue Karen.
In other words, she's a pain inthe ass and she was trying to
pick on the other ones and ifyou're from the US, you probably
know what Karen means wheneverwe talk about that.
In these cases, a Karen is nota who, it's a what.
So kind of look that up to seewhat we're talking about.
(11:45):
So I took these out.
One was a black sex link.
The other one that I took out,she's a sweet girl.
What is she?
She is a cuckoo marron and hercoloring is.
They call it cuckoo.
She's a cuckoo marron.
She lays dark eggs, notextremely dark, but they're
darker than any of the rest ofthem, of what they do.
(12:06):
And she's just a sweetheart andshe was getting picked on.
The black sex links weregetting picked on by the Karen
that I mentioned earlier, so Itook them out earlier than what
I wanted to, but it looks likemaybe, maybe, maybe, that
they're doing okay.
Okay, this has been going on fora few days now.
Now the big girls that the mainflock, they have all four
(12:28):
nesting boxes wide open to them.
So yesterday I got six eggs.
Day before yesterday I got fiveeggs.
Not sure what I'm going to gettoday.
I went peaked a little bitearlier and there was a hen on
the nest.
I don't know what was under her, but the other three nests were
empty.
And then the other two neststhat I brought in a few weeks
(12:50):
ago they were empty as well.
Usually with the two nests Ihave a couple of them not
olive-eggers but Easter Eggersthat lay a light green egg.
They kind of like to hang outin those, and those are a little
bit younger hens than some ofthe older girls, so they took to
it a lot quicker.
But that's what's been going onwith my flock here lately, just
the stresses of those young onesthat I had, the nasty-ass
(13:14):
weather that we've had, andweather can play a role, because
weather stresses out your birds.
Anything for a hen is astressor.
Chickens are creatures of habit.
They're a flock creature.
They have a flock mentality.
They want to live inside.
Anything that's different fromwhat they do day to day just
freaks them out.
Mine apparently got freaked out.
(13:34):
I went from great egg laying toreally poor egg laying and I
had customers out there goinghey, what you doing?
What's going going on.
So I just advertised onFacebook.
You know, hey, you're justgonna have to wait.
The girls are taking a littlebit of a break right now.
It seems that maybe they'restarting to perk up a little bit
more.
I certainly hope so.
Their feed is good.
Right now I'm feeding the mostexpensive Purina that I can get
(13:57):
and no, I do not subscribe tothe government making Purina.
Put something in the chickenfeed to stop the hens from
laying.
That was something that wasgoing on a few years back during
COVID and stuff like that.
If you haven't heard of it, I'mnot going to dig into it right
now, but it's almost hilarious.
You can look this stuff uponline.
But but suffice it.
Say I feed them a really goodquality feed this time of of
(14:19):
year, when it's really hot, Ibump up the protein level.
So I've gone from a 16% proteinlayer feed to a 18% protein
layer feed.
Give them a little bit moreboost.
They need that in the summer.
The same thing in the winter.
I go from 16% to 18% in thewinter because it takes more
energy to drive their bodies inthe winter than it does the
(14:41):
summer.
But protein is important foryour hands just as much as
calcium is.
Protein drives the mechanismthat creates the egg.
Protein is what keeps theirfeathers healthy.
Protein is what keeps theirliver function going the way
that it should their enzymes intheir digestive system.
Protein is very, very important.
The egg album, the white partof the egg, is mostly protein.
(15:06):
Okay, protein is a big big dealand in the summertime, when the
birds are stressed, they're noteating as much because of the
fact that they're laying aroundin the heat.
They need more protein.
In the wintertime, it takesmore energy to keep their bodies
warm, so therefore they needmore protein.
In the wintertime, it takesmore energy to keep their bodies
warm, so therefore they needmore protein, and so I bump
their feet up to do that.
So I know it's not a feed issue.
(15:28):
They get snacks quite regularlyand I use black soldier fly
larvae.
That's the snacks that I usewhen it's real hot.
I'll do little treats for themthat's half for me as much as
they are for him them.
But I will slice up some uh,blackberries.
I will slice up some grapes,put them in a little ice tray,
fill ice with them and bringthem out to the girls.
(15:49):
They love.
Pecking those things aparthelps cool their bodies down.
At the same time, when we hit,when we eat watermelon around
here and that's a big summertreat in louisiana I will give
them watermelon love that.
I have two different compostpiles outside that we're always
bringing some vegetables andplant matter and stuff in.
I love for my chickens to jumpin there and scratch around and
(16:10):
poop and do their thing, so theyget to do that Again.
Like I said, plus, theyfree-range every day so they're
out there eating bugs andwhatever else that they can get
a hold of.
I know my girls are on a good,strong, healthy diet.
I don't have any issues withthat.
I don't really have much in theway of illness going around.
I keep a good, healthy dustbath for them and I've got a
(16:31):
video on that if you want tocheck through the archives and
look at some of the videos.
So they always have a good dustbath.
I've never had a mite problemwith them.
So what else is left for themto quit doing this laying Then?
That's what it's going to bethe stressors that they had
between the young ones and theweather coming in, not being
able to report.
(16:51):
We're back to full production.
We're not there yet, but Ithink that we're starting to
inch up a little bit, sohopefully that's going to be the
truth about the matter.
Anyway, thought you'd like toknow what's going on with my
flock right now 13 hens that aregood to go.
(17:13):
Oh, by the way, out of the fourPolish four Polish every single
one of them boy, every singleone.
Three of them that I knew thatwere guys because they started
doing the crowing thing.
You know, when they sound likethey've got a pickle in their
mouth he runs chickens on.
Sometimes he processes them.
Most of the time he lets themrun around and do their thing,
because he always likes raisingchickens and he just lets his
(17:45):
chickens raise on their own.
So it's good that I have a wayto do that, and if you're out
getting young chicks.
You need to be able to have away to deal with your roosters
that you're going to have.
Don't drop them off.
Roosters cannot live out in thewild.
They're no longer that wildbird that they were thousands of
years ago.
They are a prey animal and theywill quickly become a prey
(18:08):
animal and if they don't, theywill probably starve to death,
you know.
So it's not a good thing todrop them off.
Just make sure you get a plan.
The fourth one that I thoughtwas going to be a girl.
You know, in a Polish, the guys, the males on the Polish, the
young roosters, their hairdolooks kind of like Rod Stewart,
where the girls are more tightlybound.
(18:30):
You know, in their hairdo it'sjust a big cotton ball, like in
there.
Well, I had one white laceblack Polish I was kind of
curious about.
Well, her hair isn't just likeI think it should be, but it's
not as wild looking as theseother three and it's not crowing
.
It's not trying to crow.
So whenever I got rid of three,I kept that one.
(18:53):
Two days later afterwards itstarts trying to make a crowing
sound.
So I was going to get rid of it.
Talking with Sylvie If you guysdon't know who Sylvie is.
She's a granddaughter.
She does the introductions andthe exits on my podcast, that
Chicken's Everyday podcast, andshe wants to keep it to see how
well it does.
And the reason I haven't keptroosters in the last several
(19:15):
years is because of the attitude.
Roosters can be real assholesEvery now and then you can get a
nice one, but it's really toughto make sure that you do.
It takes a lot, a lot of workto raise a rooster to be like
that.
Hopefully we're going to beable to be successful with this
one, but I'll let her know If itdoesn't work.
That rooster's got to go to thefarmer because we can't keep
something, especially around myyoung grandchildren, that I
(19:37):
can't trust.
So I'm sure you guys wouldagree with that.
So anyway, that's what's goingon with the flock over here at
Send Lob Backyard Chickens rightnow.
Hopefully I'm going to startgetting a lot more eggs.
The heat is ramping up.
I think today's high issupposed to be 94, 95 degrees
and it's not going to get anycooler for the next month month
and a half for sure and I knowthey're going to start wanting
(19:59):
to take breaks come then.
But I want to make sure I'mdoing everything that I can do
to help maximize theirproduction, give them everything
that they want spoiling mychickens great dust bath, plenty
of nest boxes that they havegood, healthy food, plenty of
fresh, clean water every day,shade trees to hang out under
and, if I didn't mention itearlier, inside my chicken pen I
(20:23):
have a small fan and I have alarge fan.
Okay, the small fan pushes outa little bit of air.
The large fan pushes out a lotof air.
These are all on Alexa.
Yeah, I get it, I'm that guy.
So if it's really really hot atnight, I'm going to run fans
inside the coop to help keep thebirds cool, especially by
morning it's almost chilly inthere.
So I'm thinking that they'regonna appreciate that.
(20:45):
But you never know with achicken, because they're not
going to tell you how they feelabout something.
So again, I'm doing what Ithink that I should be doing in
every step of the way to keepthem healthy, happy and laying.
Hopefully we'll see whathappens here pretty soon, so in
the meantime, we'll check youlater.
Hope you enjoyed the show.
Remember to hit that likebutton, subscribe whatever you
need to do and if you happen towant to support the show, just
(21:07):
go to my buzzsprout account,check it out.
Give me a little bit of love.
Thank you, guys.
Talk with you soon.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Bye-bye that's all we have time for today.
I really hope you enjoyedlistening to the podcast.
Be sure to watch our videos.
So, on behalf of my pup, gary,and me, sylvie, thanks for
listening.
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