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5Cent

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North Central Ohio
Entire flock is molting, they look pathetic lol! Need to get on a yearly rotation of spring chicks so they lay as pullets thru the winter, or increase the flock size so I can waterglass another bucket to be at 10gal total. Gonna have to buy eggs for a few weeks here soon.

May rethink putting a light in the coop, but feel they deserve the rest.
20241015_171303.jpg
 

Hedgelj

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Mohicanish
Entire flock is molting, they look pathetic lol! Need to get on a yearly rotation of spring chicks so they lay as pullets thru the winter, or increase the flock size so I can waterglass another bucket to be at 10gal total. Gonna have to buy eggs for a few weeks here soon.

May rethink putting a light in the coop, but feel they deserve the rest.View attachment 200962
Mine are doing the same (molting) but I've noticed that the first year molt is the worst for knocking out egg production.
 
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5Cent

Dignitary Member
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12,977
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North Central Ohio
The flock is done molting and back to laying 4-5/day. Finally added a light and timer, time to get back to 9-10/day.

20241220_074734.jpg


Only 1 Black Maran of the 5 bought in August has survived. The other 4 became hawk snacks. Funny to watch it work, picked off the little ones first and worked its way up to "shit, I cant carry any bigger"...."now I have a headache, or look, nothing but green pastures and love".....I don't think we'll be seeing that hawk anytime soon.
 

5Cent

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
12,977
238
North Central Ohio
I open the door every day to see if they'll venture out....fugg u is the response since the white stuff started to stick.

The shed ours are in is not insulated, but I've kept the red heat lamp on during the day and it's quite pleasant in there. I flip back to timer at dusk but think I might leave it on next week when it's cold cold so it'll be on over night. Worst case scenario is a smoldering chicken BBQ in the AM.
 
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