The chicks we received in March are still not starting to lay even though many look like they should be laying eggs. Unless something is going on that is either preventing them from laying eggs, or is stealing the eggs, it is not clear. It could simply be that the trauma from the shipping and the extreme loss of life had delayed their development. Not sure. But, yah, I am at a loss to explain.
This year, we only sold half the number of young pullets that we sold last year. Granted, we are planning on keeping more for ourselves, but after the initial March group, we had a really difficult time selling the May group. So, even though I had more reserved to receive mid-July, I cancelled that order. It is not worth the amount of work to get those sold. I have three pullets left to sell, and three roosters. Oh Boy!
All together, we plan to keep close to 30 hens this year. So we are trying to revamp the transition coop, the one I call the Grow Out coop, since we put the pullets in that coop when they are ready to be outside.
We are trying to figure out a way to insulate a roosting area for them and protect it better.
The flock that we had in there all last winter did fine but we did have to bring those birds into the garage a few days when things got too cold and/or windy. They did well in there, for the most part, so I'm not too worried about doing it a second year. However, the young pullets tore holes in the covers when roosting, and basically created sky lights and extra ventilation. I now have the areas where they poked holes, covered with a large mesh panels, that they should not be able to get their beaks through to damage the new tarps, when we have the time and energy to put new tarps on. But, we are hesitant to do any of that until we have some PVC roof panels to put over their new roosting area. It's a project that is going to take some time.
I had a nesting box plan that I had hoped to use in that coop, but things change, and so the idea got revamped. We are trying to do things on the cheap. So some old cherry tree branches were utilized as roosting bars and perches.
The May pullets that we are keeping are in, what we call, the Double Decker Pull Pen. It's one of the pens that we use when raising meat birds to move them across the field on a daily basis. They are still small enough to stay in there for a few more weeks. Then we need to get them moved into the Grow Out coop and the older March pullets moved into the main "Mansion" coop. We had hoped to start selling the layers by this time, but without new layers, we really can't start to clear out the main coop..... Ugh! Plans, Pullets and Problems.
