Chickens and eggs, it’s all the rage currently. In the headlines almost every day. How can you know what to believe?
Is chicken food the cause of your sweet backyard flock to not be laying eggs? My opinion is no. It’s simply the timing on how long the days are. Now that the days are getting longer each day, many will experience an upswing in how many eggs they will collect each day.
Our older ladies slow down each year normally a week or so before the winter solstice and it takes them until mid-February to pick back up again. For instance, we usually get on average, an egg each day from our 4 older hens, but the younger ones that are in their first year of laying eggs, have not stopped at all. They are egg laying machines.
Because of the way chickens lay eggs in this manor, many farmers will choose to cull their last years birds once they take a break the first time. Of course, they have the new layers to replace them with already. So, each spring the farm will raise a batch of chicks to replace the oldest hens in the rotation.
The older laying hens that we have here will just be part of the farm forever, until they exist no longer of natural causes. We love them for providing us with eggs each day. It’s a wonderful thing to know that you can provide food for yourself in these crazy times, especially with the cost of eggs rising in the grocery stores.
Get My Chicken Shoes Here!
My statistics show that people are buying egg cartons in bulk expecting a good egg-laying season or proof that their flock of chickens was not affected by the current rumors of big named layer feed being the cause of them not laying.
I think so many new people have jumped on the chicken bandwagon, (which I think is fabulous) that they just don’t have the experience to know that it’s natural for chickens to stop laying once they get a certain age. Don’t worry though, they will start back up for another couple years, maybe taking a break again next winter again. You might get 5-6 years of egg laying seasons out of them before they only lay an egg every so often. I once had a blue egg layer, Bugsy Blue, who laid an egg every month or so throughout her older years. I’ve got a great article on her on my blog, if you love chicken love stories, you should definitely go read it.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments how your chickens are laying currently. I could talk chicken all day!
This is a beautiful assortment of our farm fresh eggs. You can see we have a few Copper Marans that lay the darker brown eggs. The colorful, greenish-blue eggs comes from a chicken like Bugsy Blue, an easter egger. You can spot them with their minty earlobes and green legs.
Here is a video on How To Wash Farm Fresh Eggs
Are You Looking For Cheap Egg Cartons?
Here is the most cost effective ones we have ever found. Cheap Egg Cartons
If you are looking for egg cartons that are for half dozens, check these out: Half dozen egg cartons
Need a stamp to use on your egg cartons: Get one here
I’ve been in the kitchen this winter!
Here are a few of the recipes that I love to make over and over:
Jiffy Cornbread Casserole -it’s like cornbread but not dry and crumbly.
Onion Dilly Bread – the mister calls this “fancy bread” when I make it.
Easy Sausage Gravy – seriously, anyone can learn to make easy gravy.
Fluffy Chicken and Dumplings – this is a no-fail recipe for perfect dumplings.