Noah and I are working together to raise chickens this year. He entered the poultry 4-H project this year and today we picked up our five chicks.
I have learned that chickens are chosen because one desires eggs or meat, or if both, a chicken that is an okay mix of both. However, if you genuinely want egg-layers, which we do, then those birds really aren't so good for meat. They put so much of their energy into making eggs they become rather scrawny. We have also learned that chickens only lay for about a year or two and then just drain money from your pocketbook unless they have become genuine pets (the cost of feeding them becomes greater than the value of their eggs).
We purchased our chicks from a national breeder in Wisconsin who is known for show birds or rather, exhibition breeds. These birds are bred for beauty rather than their ability to efficiently produce eggs or meat. Exhibition breeds in the Mediterranean class lay better than most other show breeds, even though they don't lay as well as production flocks of the same breed. I had requested
Braham Bantam birds, which are miniature exhibition chickens, easy to care for, calm and absolutely beautiful. (The cocks are among the loudest though.)
When Mike and Noah picked them up today, they explained that the breeder didn't have any of those chicks and so were given another similar kind of bird; however, they don't remember the name (of course). The mystery should be solved in a few days because they also forgot the pedigree paperwork, which should arrive in the mail in a few days. I suspect they are another type of Bantam breed.
I am also interested in heritage breeds, but will have to look more into those birds another year. We're starting simple. Did you know that all hens lay eggs regardless of the presence of a rooster, as he is only necessary for fertilizing the eggs? Did you know the best egg-laying hens lay 24 dozen eggs a year and produce white-shelled eggs? These breeds originate from the
Mediterranean Sea and are classified as such. Examples are the
Miorca,
Ancona and the popular Leghorn, which is the breed used commercially to produce eggs for the supermarket. These birds though are inherently nervous, flighty birds and I was hoping to start with a gentle, easy-to-care for bird our first year. Brown-egg layers are calmer and all American breeds lay brown eggs.
A pullet starts laying eggs when she is 20 to 24 weeks old. Her first eggs are quite small, and she will lay only one egg every three or four days. By the time she is 30 weeks old, her eggs will be normal in size and she will lay about two eggs every three days. I have to share that I find it fascinating (of course, I am a midwife) that a chicken is born with all its yolks, approximately 4,000. When it reaches laying age, one by one the ova grow into full-size yolks and drop into a 2-inch tube called the oviduct. The really interesting part is that while she already has all her yolks, the egg white becomes encased in the shell as it travels through the oviduct about 24 hours after it starts its journey. Cool huh? Just like a human female, a female chicken enters the world with all the eggs she could possibly lay in her lifetime.
As I mentioned before, a good egg-layer lays about 20 dozen eggs in her first year and at about 18 months of age she stops laying and goes into molt, during which her old feathers gradually fall out and are replaced with new ones. They molt once a year, usually in the fall, and the process takes two or three months. Chickens need most of their energy to replace their feathers so don't make many eggs during this time, or none at all. Once her new feathers are in, she looks sleek and shiny, and begins laying again. After her first molt, a hen lays larger but fewer eggs (16 to 18 dozen in the second year).
Hens lay best with the temperature is 45 to 80 degrees. Indiana will be tough on the
ol' birds. All hens stop laying eggs in the winter. In the summer, the eggs are smaller and the shells are thinner. I've also learned that you can trick the hens into laying year-round by installing a 60-watt
light bulb in their
hen house to
mimic 14 hours of daylight each day.
Another trick I have learned is how to identify the lazy egg-layers in the bunch, in the event one would want to use these hens in a tasty stew and replace them with more proficient egg layers. Lazy layers have smaller combs and wattles than good layers. A good layer also has a large, moist vent and a lazy layer has a tight, dry vent (I suppose I already knew that). The abdomen of the hen should be round, soft and pliable rather than small and hard.
To keep eggs rolling in, it seems we will have to buy or hatch a batch of chicks every year or two. As soon as the replacement pullets start laying, we are suppose to get rid of the hens. If we do this each year, we can sale the chickens because they will still produce a fairly good amount of eggs, but if we do this every two years, we can use them in a good stew (although if you remember from a previous post, skinning a hen was way more work than I am interested in committing.)
We have been unsuccessful in learning our counties code for chickens and roosters, even after searching on line through county ordinances, Indiana legislature and asking the police officers here in town. We are going to let our neighbors complaints guide us for now. A friend of ours down the street has a rooster and I never realized it. The goats on the next block are tolerated and they clearly are louder and a more obvious farm animal in the middle of town, so we're crossing our fingers.
Noah has them tucked under a heat lamp and Mike has plans for a chicken coop. Stay tuned.
