ChattyCathy wrote:

> Janet wrote:
>
> >
> > Lucky you: my girls (16 of them) are only producing about 2 eggs per day
> > since their molt in the fall. I was getting more like 6-9 a day. (This
was
> > with an original flock of 12--one killed when run over by the neighbor's
> > tractor--augmented the next year by a second flock of 8--one killed by
my
> > dog who chased her and picked her up, one killed by an unknown predator,
and
> > one horrible accidental rooster that I finally had someone come and take
> > away.)
> >
>
> Heh. We started out with 21 chicks - a mongoose got 7 of them... Our
> older hens went off laying in winter too - which I gather is where you
> are at the moment. The locals around here and the poultry discussion
> groups I read say that hens need a minimum of 14 hours of daylight (and
> must be kept quite warm) to keep laying in the colder months, and this
> can be gotten around when the shorter days set in by putting in
> lighting/heating in their coops... Have you done that? We don't bother
> here (South Africa), as our climate is fairly warm most of the year and
> our winters fairly short. So I just let them "have a rest" for a month
> or two...
>
> I hear ya about the rooster - got rid of ours too, he was a "monster"
> with sharp talons - ask me I know. The little bastid would "attack" me
> when I went to feed them... I have scars to prove it
>
> > I was selling about 4 dozen per week to friends for $2/dozen (extremely
> > cheap for free-range eggs), but now we've actually had to buy eggs
> > occasionally for the first time in 3 years!
>
> Yes, that's cheap. "Free-range" eggs are expensive in our stores too.
>


Interesting discussion...

When I was a kid (I'm 50} on the farm we had chickens and a hen house, many
US Midwest (I grew up in rural Illinois) farm families did so...

We kept guinea fowl, they are are very noisy and kept the foxes and raccoons
and other predators somewhat away from the laying fowl...

Mongooses (Mongeese?)...Riki Tiki Tavi....

:-)


--
Best
Greg