Unseasonably warm day but the animals are loving it. Ed
Around mid-September I noticed the girls production drop off. The Ameraucanas basically stopped laying altogether. Just before I had surgery I rigged up an LED floodlight in the hen house and put it on a timer. Now, the inside of the house is lit up from 4AM to 8AM. This added 4 hours gives them a minimum of 14 hours of daylight each day. According to the gurus of YouTube, at least 14 hours of light is required for peak egg laying.
At first, I didn’t notice any change. We would get one or two eggs from the Rhode Island Reds and maybe one a week from the Ameraucanas. But after about two weeks, it was like someone turned on the egg faucet; we were back to 3 to 5 eggs a day. The Rhode Islands are still better producers, both in number and egg size, but the pretty birds are back to earning their mealworms again. Ed PS: Today was a 5 egg day — 3 brown from the Rhode Islands and one each from Cinder and Chowder. Goldie gave me one yesterday. She’s still in my good graces.
And if you are wondering how I know which Ameraucana lays each day, I’ve figured out the colors from each hen. Goldie lays pale blue eggs. They are almost white. Chowder’s eggs are an aquamarine blue as are the eggs from Cinder. However, Cinder’s eggs have tiny speckles on them. Chowder’s rarely have anything that might be seen as a blemish.
Having surgery on my shoulder on 31 October 2023 meant I could get started rehabbing during the winter. That was a good plan but I didn’t think about how that would affect my goats. Even after I felt strong enough, with all the rain we’ve had I couldn’t get in and muck out their enclosure. Today, it was dry enough to slog around in there and get the biggest of the mess out.
These are before and after shots. The “after” represents three wheelbarrows full of wet goat shit and straw moved over into the muck pit. Just an FYI, wet goat shit is a lot heavier than dry goat shit!
I probably could have scraped out another half a load but I was just too tired to do any more. At least the stones are exposed now; B&C no longer have to tiptoe through the slop. Ed
PS: Cinder approves of my work. She’s there in the lower half of the after shot looking for earthworms.
