High Desert Cowboy- How far is it up north?

[High Desert Cowboy]

He’s a polypay.

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

Well we got a whole whopping inch of snow yesterday, and it was gone by noon. Gus Gus seems to be settling in nicely, I have him separated for now to make sure all is well. He’s eating and drinking just fine, and hes much more polite about his feed bucket than Shaun is. Shaun would knock it over and head butted it all over creation, I tied it and he just broke it. Gus Gus eats what he wants, leaves it goes back for seconds, leaves it and it sits there with whatever he didn’t want to eat until tomorrow.
Dear Shaun on the other hand has been listed for sale. This could prove difficult around here but I’mhoping someone up north will see it and come for him. If not I’ll figure something out

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

I have a conundrum. When my parents decided they wanted to move to Oklahoma my mom gave me some of her chickens, her little feather babies that she fed meal worms and loved dearly. Great, we’ve appreciated them and they’ve done alright at laying eggs. But now I can safely say I haven’t seen an egg since September, and I’ve run out of tricks. I’ve given them light, scratch, feed with higher protein, good deep straw, and it’s been an incredibly mild winter. Plenty of snow on the mountain, but today it’s almost 50 degrees. My mom seems shocked that I haven’t gotten an egg in all that time because they laid so well for her. So my conundrum has become so I keep waiting and praying that they start laying again soon meanwhile potentially wasting feed, or do I turn them into dog food? Do I love my chickens, sure they were mom’s. But if they’re not laying eggs anymore then they’re just fancy lawn ornaments, and if I want one of those I can buy some garden gnomes that I don’t have to feed.

 

[Mike CHS]

How old are the hens? They only have a finite number of eggs in their systems.

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

They turned 3 about the time they stopped laying according to her.

 

[Mike CHS]

They should still be laying but our 3 year olds are still laying huge eggs although not as many as when they were younger. I don't know how your winters affect them though.

 

[Bruce]

When did you start giving them light and how many hours of daylight do they get?

I have 3 hens that are 7.5 years old, they don't lay in the winter, normally start up mid to late February though 2 of them only seem to lay so they can go broody. But the EE has never gone broody .... and she's laid 2 eggs in the past week. I do not light my coop. I also have hens from 2015, 2017, 2018 and the 8 pullets from 2019. All the pullets are laying as are 2 of the 2015s, one of the 2017s and one of the 2018s. I don't understand the change since like the 2012s none of the older girls have ever laid in winter past their pullet winter and the 2017's and 2018's not even then.

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

I suppose I’ll give these gals a few more weeks to see if they come out of it.
I woke up to snow on the ground today, not sure if it’ll stick but I’ll take it. We also had some excitement last night with a 4.0 earthquake. The whole house shook for a second and then it was over. My wife and kids have never experienced one before so they were a little shook up (pun intended).

 

[Xerocles]

they’ve done alright at laying eggs. But now I can safely say I haven’t seen an egg since September, and I’ve run out of tricks.

Are they free range or kept in a run?

 

[Bruce]

We also had some excitement last night with a 4.0 earthquake. The whole house shook for a second and then it was over. My wife and kids have never experienced one before so they were a little shook up (pun intended).

That is a pretty good size quake. I hope it runs "normal" with no or "decreasing in intensity" aftershocks, not like what is happening in Puerto Rico.