Will hoey

[Ange1]

I've had good advice to reduce the length of time that my girls free range as one hen for some reason hasn't for 8 days!

 

At the moment they get let out onto the grass between 6pm and 9pm during the week and for the afternoons at the weekend?

 

Is this too long a time to let them free range, if I want Ethel (the non-layer) to fill up on layers first should I wait until the evening to let them graze or is letting them out in the afternoon okay?

[Egluntyne]

If she has had all morning to fill up on pellets I'd say afternoon free ranging would be OK.

 

Why not bring them in a bit earlier so that they tank up on pellets again before going to bed?

[Hen Watch]

If you let them out at 6pm to evening free range then I would have thought that they would have filled up with pellets by then.

 

School hols now so my chooks can get 9.30am - 8.30pm all day free ranging if we don't go out. And if they are lucky and get a run of 3 days free ranging I do notice less eggs. If I take the kids out to the park and the chooks are in the run all morning the egg production seems ok.

 

Perhaps there is another reason Ethel has stopped laying. Mini moult, worms, lice, not drinking enough ????

[Gamebird]

My 6 girls free range all day - 6am to 8pm now that the days are getting shorter.

 

I still get on average 5.5 eggs per day so it doesn't seem to affect their egg production.

 

As Hen Watch says, maybe there is something else wrong with Ethel.

[Egluntyne]

If you let them out at 6pm to evening free range then I would have thought that they would have filled up with pellets by then.

 

Mine always seem to have a late supper of more pellets.

[Steph101]

I let mine free range all day long. They get a fair few treats as well. They forage in grass all day long, chase each other, jump on and off the eglu; they are really happy. And their eggs taste fantastic.

[Ange1]

She is 3 months old, is that too young to moult?

 

I've wormed her so might have been that.

 

There are two full super glugs that they drink from but I have recently taken away the kitty litter tray that they loved drinking from and replaced it with a galvanised proper drinker. How come hens get so spooked by something as simple as a new drink in the garden?!

[Gamebird]

She is 3 months old, is that too young to moult?

 

Do you mean 3 months old because I wouldn't have thought she was laying at that age?

[iar fach goch]

mine free range all day and are still laying, although we have had a slight drop recently which we have put down to lice and the shortening, damp days.

[Ange1]

Whoops! I mean more like 7 months! They've been laying for just over a month anyway.