This is what we do in the winter to tend to the chickens. If you've seen our Introducing New Chickens in the Winter video, you might be wondering what happened to our new chickens after you watch this video... well, before you freak out, this footage was taken before we got the new chickens! But other than getting more eggs, everything else is pretty much the same as it relates to our chores!
Just a couple side comments... All but two of the chickens you see in this video are at least 4 years old. That is pretty old for a laying hen, so we obviously don't get much production from them. This summer we got an egg about every other day from them. Our other two chickens were 1 when we got them 1.5 years ago, so they are getting close to 3 years old. During the summer we were getting an egg a day from them. So all that to say, we aren't surprised to be getting only one egg a day from eight chickens in the middle of winter. For these reasons, however, we decided we needed more chickens!
We have also chosen to keep everything as natural as possible, so we don't put a light on in the coop during the winter. Putting a light on all night in their coop will trick their internal clock, resulting in more egg production. But it also increases the electric bill! Since these chickens' eggs are just for our personal use, we aren't trying to squeeze every last egg out of them! If we were raising eggs for profit, no doubt we would tighten up production a bit!
We hope you enjoy the video!
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