One death, two ill birds, moulting and brooding chickens, a sharp drop in egg production. We are not having too good a time with our hens at the moment. On Saturday our white leghorn died suddenly. She was a lovely bird with a huge comb and she laid beautiful white eggs. Over the weekend we moved two of our hens to the back garden. One is lethargic and not eating. The other is eating well but is limping. Back on the allotment and one of our copper blacks has gone very broody. She gets up in the morning, eats and then returns to the nest box and sits on any eggs she can find. She is also moulting (as are some of the other hens). All this has contributed to s sharp drop in egg production. We normally get about 14 eggs a day. On Saturday we were down to three though we are now up to seven or eight a day.
The copper black is in for a treat. As she is brooding, and as we have lost our only hen which lays white eggs, I have ordered 6 exchequer leghorn eggs. This is a white hen with black speckles. And they lay white eggs. The eggs arrive on Friday and we will let our copper black brood them.
1 comment:
I have a hen that has been broody for it must be 2 months or more now. I have 5 orpingtons. we are averaging about 3 eggs a day which is plenty for us.
Jeff
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