Fake Light and Real Eggs

Another of the girls has started laying eggs as of today. A little more than two weeks ago, one of the girls began laying eggs, but none of the others were so inspired. After some more "research" I realized that we just really were not getting enough sunlight during the day. I hope we have that part fixed now.

Today, I found a smallish, slightly blood smeared egg early in the morning, and another egg arrived around 10 this morning. It would appear that we now have two layers in the group.

Last Sunday (October 12) I added a small 40W bulb, on a timer to turn on at 4:00 a.m. in the coop. I set it to be on from 4 to 7:30 since some of our mornings can still be quite dark even after the sun comes up.

Essentially, this is week 26 for the girls. And my guess is that we just needed to add a little extra light in their day to activate their pineal glands for egg laying purposes.  Hopefully, this will do the trick and all four will be laying eggs soon enough.

Twenty Plus Weeks Equals Eggs?

Although, at least two of the chickens hit their 20 week point on/around September 13, I'm guessing that the other two had to be 20 weeks old around September 29. Yet, the eggs did not arrive until October 1. Or should I say "the egg."

I'm not sure if they were just confused because the nesting box had not been "finalized" yet, or if they are simply slower to mature (likely it's the latter). D divided up the nesting area into two smaller boxes on September 29, and two days after doing that, we were gifted with our first egg. Since then, we have received one egg per day. Cute little beige eggs that are getting larger each day.

As soon as the egg was discovered, we switched the feed over to Organic Layer pellets and added some ground oyster shell to their food to help encourage healthy egg laying. Hopefully, the other three will join in soon to contribute to our egg supply.

We had a series of events over the past few weeks that may have contributed to the egg delay, as well.  A little more than a week ago, around September 21, we had a pack of coyotes chasing a dog through our property.  I'm sure that this was stressful to the poor chickens since it was stressful for me hearing all those coyotes cay-yie and yelp in such close proximity to the house. Then, the week before, we were having water issues (heavy rain drain) leaking into the coop and drain into their feeder under the coop. We also had sideways rain, adding to the feeder getting drenched.

We purchased a waterproof army tarp to cover the coop and keep the heavy rains out (the floor is staying dry).  I think this will also help keep the coop warmer at night. We purchased some plexi-glass panes to create a wind shield on the door and also attached it on the side of the wire that the feeder is closest too.  Interestingly, the girls seem to like the plexiglass.  It provides shield and light for them, as well, while they are in their "yard."

Despite the heavy torrential rains that we had last weekend (we had record breaking rainfall last weekend), the girls stayed outside (in their yard) all day, each day. We have been moving their coop a bit more frequently since the rains have added to their quick destruction of the ground. Thankfully, we have plenty of areas to move their coop.

D is still working on the watering system.  The waterer has not worked out like he envisioned, but he continues to tinker with it each weekend in hopes of getting it to work.

That's the latest news.  The pictures of an egg and the nesting boxes are below.