Chickens & Snow

tessasmum

Mustn't show those piccies to my lot, or they'll all be round your house! Looks very luxurious. Mine are getting hot mash each morning, which they love, and plenty of corn at 3pm each afternoon. No eggs at the moment, but they are mostly (bar 6) all "old" breeds which I don't really expect to lay much over the winter, but they will come into lay soon, and then we'll have eggs galore.

blushingbride_3

well mine were laying consistently until last week, i think they are now fed up with the snow.

I rescued them in feb and they have been lovely

I havent done anything different other than warm water in the mornings. Hubby does most of it as i have to leave for work before they are up! shame because i only see them @ weekends at the moment

Lotus-eater

One_Day_Rodney wrote: »

Probably pampered too much !

I have a feeling you might be right

I bet mine given half the chance, wouldn't say no though.

Newbird

One_Day_Rodney .....(great user name BTW!)

Really good idea for winter protection...I'm going to get organsied so I can have some chooks!

giantmutantbroccoli

Back when I had chickens we used to give them a hot mash - hot water + cooked veggie scraps + layers mash (just layers pellets without the suttf that binds it all together) in the morning, then some mixed corn and grain to bring them in at night. Also because bugs etvc are scarce in winter I fed ours extra protein from fish, rotten milk, meat scraps or maggots.

About egg production trailing off during the winter (stop me if you know this already lol), that's caused by the decreasing hours of daylight. Birds use daylength as a cue to tell them what time of year it is, and when daylength falls much below 12-8hours (it varies according to breed, some commercials will carry on laying) the birds will 'know' that it's not summer any more, and stop laying. You can trick them into laying all year round by putting a light in their house and maintaining about 12 hours of daylight, although if you haven't been doing that it's best to work up to 12 hours gradually. We used to have an extension that ran from the greenhouse and just one energy-saving bulb. The energy saving bulbs are excellent for this as they don't light up really brightly without warning, the gradual lightening they produce mimics the natural dawn.

If you're worried about your birds being cold - we might have bred them to survive in the UK, but their ancestors were jungle fowl! - you can try a traditional method of keeping them warm, using a deep litter bedding. In a deep litter, the bedding - straw, and possibly wood shavings - is allowed to rot down underneath the surface layer. The rotting straw produces heat that keeps the henhouse warm, and the top layer is dry, clean straw. To clean out, remove soiled litter from the top and any wet litter from the bottom, use woodshavings to soak up excess moisture if need be and replace the top with fresh straw. At the end of the cold weather give the henhouse a thorough clean out, and you'll have a nice lot of nitrogen-rich fertiliser as well.

k.o.d

Lotus-eater wrote: »

There are layers pellets and then are organic layers pellets.

I use normal, some people swear by organic. Organic of course are a bit more expensive.

A lot of non-organic layers pellets have quantities of antibiotics in them (for the battery hen feeds), it is best to look at the label to ensure no antibiotics are added.

BillScarab

Wheer I buy my pellets from there are three choices.

1/ The cheap ones.

2/ The Natural ones, no chemicals but not guaranteed Organic.

3/ The Organic ones.

Perosnally I get the Natural ones as it works out a fair bit cheaper than Organic.

My three Sussex hens hate the snowand haven't laid an egg since they moulted in the autumn. If they actually come out of the run at the moment they just run to the trampoline as there's no snow under it.

jammy_dodger

i have just had to move my hens in to my poly tunnel as the garden is so full of snow 3 ft of it , there is no where left for them to go and scratch about . luckily i have a small hen house for emergencies in there so they now think they are on their holidays !!! fingers crossed they may start laying again too had 3 eggs since xmas day !!