January Week 1
Yesterday I told you about how I had some daily posts that I have been doing on my personal FB that I, and others, thought may be good to share here to help me get back on track to posting on Steemit. I decided I will try to compile a week's worth (maybe more or less) at a time into one post to try and get current to start sharing here instead of on FB only. So here's the first set!
The first week of January was pretty brutal. We were under freezing fog for most of the week. The chickens were cold and not doing a whole lot. It was terrible not being able to see the sun for that long. It was such an odd occurrence because if I drove ten miles away, whichever way, from my property, it was sunny and WARM. While we were in the 20s. It was so cold.
We did start getting more eggs! This was terribly eggciting for me. Even with the freezing fog, I was surprised the chickens were even willing to lay. This was a stressful chicken week though, my little bantam rooster decided to pass away. I took him to get necropsy to make sure he didn't have anything that would be effecting my whole flock. Thank goodness, the vet said it wasn't anything like that. Unfortunately for the little guy, he had testicular cancer. I felt terrible after, but let me tell you, I jumped for joy when the doc told me that it wasn't something that would kill my flock.
I am thankful I wasn't terribly attached to him, but I was still very upset because I was so worried that he had some terrible disease that would wipe out my flock. This put me into a terrible downward spiral because I had felt that all of my hopes of breeding chickens in the future was at risk. I felt that there was no point in me having chickens at all! It was really a terrible feeling. I am glad at the outcome. The vet asked me if I had any of this rooster's babies, and I don't. I assume that means that something like that could be hereditary.
Even though I had that deep scare with the chickens, the prospects of getting more eggs was really awesome. I started keeping track of the total eggs each day. This has been really fun to see the increase, or decrease as it sometimes happens. All of November and December we maybe got 0-3 eggs per day. This is unusual for a chicken's first winter! Of course this would happen to me. You know, I do believe it is because I had a run in with chicken lice. That's since been eradicated and it seems that they're much happier chickens now!
January 1-6 Egg Count: 20
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I am so happy that you are back! I have missed you and your posts. So sorry to hear about your rooster but thank goodness he didn't have anything contagious. But the lice must have been awful. Benji and Squeakers are adorable and can't wait to hear more about them. And the slow-mo is hilarious! : )
I’ve missed you too! Yes the rooster was a very stressful situation. Golly I was reeling! But it turned out to be ok! The lice was an ordeal, it got bad enough to where some of the chickens stopped laying altogether. I just didn’t really know about it at the time. But it’s been taken care of and now I check all the time!
So sorry about your 'roo,but yes happy your flock wasn't put at risk. However, this reminded me of my old flock back in California. There was a small suburban homestead near Sacramento, Yellow Rose Ranch I think, anyway, she purposely introduced sick birds to her flock in order to breed disease resistant lines! The first few years she lost most of her flock, but each year, the survival rate improved! I just thought that was pretty cool.
As for eggs, we have Icelandic hens and while they stop laying while molting in the fall, they lay really well throughout the winter! In fact, I've noticed on the warmer days (40s) I'm getting less eggs! I really should document better so I know for certain, but they sure do seem to prefer the cold.
I hear a lot about that with breeders and I haven't decided how I felt about it. It seems wrong in many ways, but fine and makes sense in others. I am really on the fence about it. Because if someone had a non-infected flock, then potentially, by buying a bird from said resistance-breeder, they can infect and lose their whole flock.
I hear good things about the icelandic hens! They seem to be a little hard to get around here, and I haven't decided on them, but haven't looked too terribly hard either. Haha. That's crazy that they want to lay when it's so cold. But, is this their first winter?
Right now, either my hens are laying just slightly less, or they have started laying in a very well hidden spot that I can't seem to find... haha
Oh yes, the hiding eggs game! We used to have to stalk our ducks for that very reason! This is the hens' 2nd winter with us and we had the same results last year! Pretty sweet!
I think the disease resistant idea can be looked at from a couple angles. The anti-vaxx or the long term shtf. Different perspectives and I respect both. When we can strengthen our immune systems without outside help that is a pretty cool thing.
See that’s what makes me on the fence about it all! Hahah it’s a hard thing to think about for me.
I hope their hiding eggs... haha I’m constantly afraid somethings wrong with them!
Love the slow motion! Great to see you back in the swing!
It’s hilarious isn’t it?! I have one of the geese I should post and it’s frightening! Lol
That's a pretty good egg count for January from what I've learned about their laying habits.
Cool slow motion!
That’s just week 1! Haha just wait to see the total! I’m pretty impressed! :)
I would love chickens but It is simply way too cold here to pay the heat to warm the coop. We get a week of -30 to -40 with the wind chill, the chickens would never go outside. The water would freeze. I would have to hook up electricity to the coop and run a baseboard or furnace of sorts. Thanks
I believe there's many people in Canada and Alaska who have chickens in the same conditions without electricity. It's true, the water would probably freeze often! Maybe something to look more into. :) Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you so much for the mention! :-)