15 hens.....15 eggs! Finally!!

We finally reached an eggciting milestone yesterday! Full egg production! Our oldest hens were born April 15th and first started laying by the end of August. The rest of our girls were born May 15th and have been taking their time laying. About a month or so ago we knew all our girls were laying....we just couldn't get them to do it on the same day. Happily, yesterday was the day!

Many things can affect a hens lay rate. Breed, nutrition, emotional state and more all play a role. One of the most crucial is daylight hours. No matter what you feed your hens or how happy they are....if light is not supplemented in the winter months you may not get ANY eggs. Production birds will most likely slow down but not shut down altogether. But most other breeds may not lay again until spring. We are choosing to supplement with light this first year, but will be giving our girls a much needed break next year.

Our main reason for doing this is so that we are prepared for the spring chick market. Once a hen stops laying it can take weeks for her to start producing again. In order to offer fertilized hatching eggs and baby chicks for the spring season, we need our girls laying as early as February/March if we are to have baby chicks by April. Taking 6-8 weeks to fully feather out, that means our spring chicks will be ready for outdoor coops as early as May. This is ideal for our spring weather in Wisconsin.

Our Welsummer rooster is mating with our Welsummer hens, Olive Egger hens and Barred Rock hens, and results in some highly sought after chicken breeds. Welsummers are a rare, dual purpose breed (meat and eggs) that produce beautiful dark, speckled eggs. They're shy but very friendly birds.

When a Welsummer is mated with a Barred Rock something special happens. The first generation of another true breed is started....the Welbar. Roosters hatched from this first generation are then bred with Welsummer hens to produce the final generation and they become true Welbar breed chickens. It results in a very pretty bird that will breed true when mated with other Welbars. Hybird chickens like Olive Eggers do not breed true and offspring can have traits from either parents.

Olive Eggers mated with a Welsummer will produce a darker green egg that may have the beautiful speckling on the egg like the Welsummer. Some of the eggs I've seen have reminded me of mint chocolate chip ice cream!

We are looking forward to helping you all raise these awesome breeds of chickens! Feel free to reach out with questions, advice or to place your order for spring eggs or chicks! We will also have pullets and hens as the season progresses!! We also invite you to Join our group and become a "Chicken Tender"!