If you read the newspapers and believe them, 'back-yard' chicken-keeping is at an all time high - or at least since WW2. As I live in the country, I haven't seen any difference, in fact, locally, many people have given up trying to keep chickens as they can get incredibly cheap eggs from the supermarket without having to clean out a coop every day.
I can understand why they do this, as keeping chickens is not a cheap option of getting eggs. It's a hobby; it's enjoyable; it's a conversation piece; it's not cheap, but chicken fanciers think it's worth it. When you've spent time picking and purchasing a coop, setting it up, buying or acquiring your chickens and establishing a flock; the sense of pride is immense when that first egg appears.
The trick is to make sure you get more than one egg, so the return on your investment isn't the cost of the coop, food and hens for a single egg worth 25p.
The trick is to make sure you get more than one egg, so the return on your investment isn't the cost of the coop, food and hens for a single egg worth 25p.
So what sort of flock do you want?
Do you want a pretty flock of little Silkies that won't make too much mess and will be good with children? Do you want to have occasional eggs in pretty colours? Or do you want to lay enough eggs to feed your family? You can mix your breeds, as I have done, to get a combination of pretty and utilitarian hard core egg-layers. You can choose to re-home ex-battery hens and you can even choose to do without a cockerel. The chances are that when people hear that you are setting up a flock, people will try to donate their unwanted hens and cockerels, so beware of what you are saying 'yes' to and beware of falling in love with unsuitable chickens that will not help you to achieve the balance in the flock that you are trying to achieve.
Beware; it's a heck of a lot easier to get a chook than to get rid of a chook.
You can research breeds for as long as your heart requires on the internet and there are a multitude of books available about poultry breeds. I found this page on Wikipedia to be very useful as it lists breeds by origin country and then links to a breed page. However, be aware that many of these breeds are not available in this country and if they are, then they are probably rare and a bit on the pricey side.
Why aren't they laying?
So, we know that we don't need to keep chickens to get cheap eggs, which is lucky as you will probably have months without getting any eggs at all. The little buggers will happily chomp their way through your carefully selected layers pellets - designed specifically to give your hens the best nutrition to lay eggs - but no eggs appear. This could be for a number of reasons:
- Your chickens are too young, too old or badly bred.
Hens start to lay at approx 5 to 6 months old and may lay for years. However, they lay sporadically when they are coming into maturity and going into old age. I have one chicken, Ava, who has laid eggs in the summer, but unlike her prolific companion, Grace, has only laid a few useless soft shelled eggs for the last three months. Both chickens have the same diet and supplements, but she just can't get a decent egg out. I have finally decided that this must be down to bad breeding, which I can do nothing about. Many people keep under-performing hens despite the lack of eggs as they've grown attached to them. Understandable, but this means you are feeding hens for no output. At this stage you are keeping them as a pet. I'm not sure I like Ava enough to keep her, so I have a daily internal discussion about whether today is the day she goes 'to see the farmer'. So far, she's winning.
- The breed of the chicken is not a heavy-laying type.
There are a multitude of chickens that are pretty-looking (Orpington), unusual (Silkies), or that lay pastel coloured eggs (Arucana). Generally speaking, the prettier breeds are not great on laying an egg a day over a sustained period. Grace, my Light Sussex, has laid 29 eggs in every month since she matured into laying as her breed has been bred to lay up to 300 eggs a year. A specialised breed could lay no more than a dozen eggs a year, or none at all - depending on the quality of its' breeding. I had a beautiful blue Brahma hen who never laid an egg and died young; which is always sad.
If you are looking for a good layer, the Rhode Island Red or Sussex breeds are both excellent and easy to find in rural 'Fur and Feather Auctions', or through breeders that can be found online.
- The chicken has been traumatised.
My blue Brahma hen was unfortunate enough to be chased twice by a neighbours small dog that had escaped from its' garden. It was as if her spirit had been broken and she simply faded away. Incredibly sad, and quite common in the larger or over-bred specialist breeds. They are a bit like owning a race-horse - highly strung. Even a 'hardy' breed will suffer if there is a fox or dog attack, but they will recover quicker. How long is up to them, but I've had chickens seemingly die of shock and others who just kept on laying the following day. Amazingly, and despite their breed, each chicken reacts individually.
- Your hen is broody.
My beloved bantam Maran, Ken the hen, is a typical broody. Even at 3 years old, she will lay a dozen eggs and then go broody. At this point, if the eggs could be fertile from one of the cockerels, I will pop a couple underneath her and let her get on with it. In 20-24 days, if I'm lucky, a couple of little chicks hatch out. If you don't have a cockerel, then your hen going broody is a waste of both your time. She will sit in the coop or in a nest somewhere else and stubbornly remain there until it finally occurs to her that there are no eggs underneath her. She can't help it - she's just following a hundred million year-old chemical instruction to keep the species going.
The best cure for broodiness? Chuck her out of the nest and deny her access. She'll shout at you for a few days, but eventually she'll give up and go back into a laying phase again - until the cycle starts all over again. I use my broody to hatch out other fertilised eggs - such as George and Grace's. A broody isn't fussy over what eggs she sits on - she's just glad to have some eggs to fuss over.
- Your chickens aren't being fed the right food, or enough of it.
I've written a section on food which covers the types of food and at what age to feed it called 'Feeding Guide'. But briefly, feed as the packaging suggests, or as a guide, I mix a handful of pellets per chicken into a bowl with their daily supplements and then add to that when it runs out. You could have a separate feeder that is filled with pellets and then just re-fill it when it runs out. I choose not to do this as I want the chickens to eat the pellets with the supplements on, then I give them more. I also give them a few handfuls of treats each afternoon, which is also covered on the 'Feeding Guide' page.
- Your chicken is a cockerel!
Seriously. It's easy to get confused when you first start out. I'll write more about this in a later section. But a quick solution is to either eat them or sell them at a Fur and Feather Auction.
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| An exotic White Sultan. Blimey! |
