Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Welsummer Layers are Back

Despite the troubling start to merging the one remaining Orloff with the three Welsummers in coop 3, the distress appears to have settled down. The smallest of the Welsummers is regaining her tail feathers and has found a spot on the nightly roost. That Orloff has been literally laying an egg per day for the past week! The Welsummers have been leaving us one to two eggs per day since December 18, so I think we are back to getting a decent number of eggs.  Of the eight layers that we have, we are getting at least three to four eggs per day!  So we are short a couple eggs per day, overall, but that's fine. We still have enough eggs left over to sell off to friends. One Orloff in coop two continues to lay her eggs in the corner of the coop, just outside of the nesting box. :)  

Weather continues to be a sloggy mess, but the winds have been coming in from SW making temps stay above 40F in our area. We may get some snow in a few days.  

Friday, December 11, 2015

10-week Molt in Coopdee Three has Come to an End

The remaining Orloff in Coop three laid her first egg post-molt today. We received four eggs today from both coopers. We actually got three from coop two, which, essentially indicates that all the hens in that coop are back to laying. The Welsummers are still not laying eggs. I'm hoping that now with the lone Orloff in coop three back in laying form, they will pick back up with theirs too. 

We're a soggy mess in our region. Normally, for the month of December, we get about 6 to 7 inches  of precipitation, usually in the form of rain, the entire month. But, in the past week alone, we had approximately 6 inches, with a lot of flooding in some areas. Hillsides are collapsing, roads are getting washed away, new pot-holes are forming, roadways are under feet of water. It's not good. Our ground is saturated beyond the point of draining and our poor chickidees are slogging around in the muck. We threw out some grass hay (not straw) to help minimize the amount of muck, but that's not perfect. It's just the best we can do for now. 

Onions and Garlic might end up rotting in the garden due to the warmth of the air and the amount of rain. Oy Vey!