HOW TO GET THE MOST EGG PRODUCTION FROM YOUR LAYING HENS.

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The gain of all poultry farmers and backyard chicken owners is to get more eggs from their hens. Most flock owners keep hens as either pets, or for their eggs, the latter being the highest priority. Often flock owners ask why their hens are not laying as they expected, not laying often, or stopped laying completely. There are number of things that affect a hen’s ability to lay more eggs or not laying atall, such as her age, genetics and breed make up, feed and nutrition demands, stress and comfort, and daylight hours. In the best egg laying breeds, a hen in her prime productive period will lay around 90%, or near daily, only taking a day "off" now and then. The conditions need to be right for her to be able to do so though. I have discussed the reasons hens do not lay in this article. Now let's look now at what you can do to get the most out of your layers. These are what you should look out for

1. Breeds and Genetics

We have a lot of different chicken breeds, each with their own unique make up of good characteristics. Some are excellent layers, some are better for meat production, some are "dual purpose", others are lawn ornaments that lay the odd egg and are kept mainly as pets or for exhibition purposes. If you wish to start a flock with good egg production as the goal, it's recommended that you carefully research the different breeds' characteristics and egg laying abilities before buying any hens. Once you have an established flock and are permitted to keep a rooster, you may hatch your own eggs and then breed selectively for better egg production. Raising your own replacements will also allow you to breed for the best disease resistance and overall health of your flock. Raising your own may not work for everyone, but if you have the time and space and of course a rooster, you may find it a great option. Remember though that hatches will produce a percentage of roosters, who will need to be rehomed, or processed for the table, if you feel you can or want to do so. Many people, myself included, find it hard to eat our flock members.

A hen’s egg production is at its peak from approximately 6 to 18 months of age, though some breeds start sooner and some may start laying actively later. Somewhere around the age of 18 months to 2 years, most chickens will start molting and lose a lot of feathers, before growing new ones. During this period, which lasts a few weeks, a hen will lay few eggs, if at all. Once she gets back into production she may lay fewer, larger eggs and after each subsequent year, hens will lay fewer and fewer eggs. For this reason commercial egg producing farms and factory farms replace their hens once they have passed their prime egg laying age. Flock owners are generally more laid back and keep their hens for longer periods, some until they pass on from old age, which can be at more than 10 years!
Many homesteaders choose to cull and make stock of their older hens instead. It is a personal choice and either option is good.

In order to produce good quality eggs on a regular basis, layers need a good quality layer feed to give them the necessary nutrients and calories and equally, if not more importantly, access to clean, fresh drinking water all day. Free ranging or pastured hens will find a lot of their nutritional requirements by foraging for food, but they will still need layer feed to keep them in top production. Free ranging hens generally produce a nicer quality egg than cooped up or battery hens, but it is important to make sure they get what they need, in addition to what they find themselves.
Many of us like spoiling our hens a bit with treats such as table scraps and scratch grains. This is fine, if fed in moderation and should at maximum not make up more than 10% of the hen's daily food intake. Too many treats will reduce the nutrients the hens need for body maintenance and egg production and can also make them fat. Fat hens cannot lay well and it is unhealthy for them too.

2. Daylight and egg laying

Chickens naturally lay more eggs during the spring and summer when the days are long. Their instincts tell them that this is the best time to raise their young. You can encourage them to lay eggs year round by setting up a light on a timer in their coop, extending their light hours to around 14 hours daily. Some flock owners feel that hens should get a break over the winter months and lay naturally and when they feel like it.
Some breeds and younger hens, in their prime, are more likely to produce well in climates with cold winters and very short day, so again do research and choose breeds according to your climate and conditions. Make sure you collect eggs several times a day during very cold weather, or they may freeze and crack in the nest boxes.

3. The hens' health

Healthy, happy hens who have what they need and feel comfortable in their environment will reward us with more eggs. Stressed, unhealthy, or parasite laden hens will not and cannot produce eggs at an optimum. If there are things stressing them, like kids or dogs bothering and chasing them, constant changes in the coop, etc, they will feel it's unsafe to produce eggs and raise young, which is why hens lay, for reproduction. Many flock owners found that after a traumatic, or stressful event such as a predator attack, or a move to a new home or coop, their hens will cease production, sometimes for weeks. What hens want is a safe, comfortable, dry area (the coop), with a designated area designed for them to lay eggs in (nest boxes), as well as shelter from adverse weather conditions and possible predators. Make sure the coop is spacious enough for the number of hens you are housing (at least 4 sq feet per hen, more if possible) and that they have adequate space to roam outside. If not allowed to free range, provide at least 12 sq feet of space per hen in the run, more if possible. More is always, always better when it comes to space and chickens. Also make sure you have a nest box for every 3-4 hens, though you may find that they'll pick a "favourite" box to lay in and ignore the others.
Unhealthy or parasite laden hens cannot produce good quality eggs at a regular basis. It is important to do regular checks on your hens, make sure they are treated as a preventive for intestinal worms, mites and lice, etc. Spend a bit of time regularly observing the flock and take note of any usual behaviour, changes in their appearance etc. As you get more familiar with your flock, even small changes will become more noticeable in time and enable you to catch and take care of any illnesses, or issues as early as possible.
If all mentioned in this post is follow and take to practice, your hens will lay more eggs .

TWO THINGS YOU NEED TO FEED YOUR CHICKEN TO MAKE THEM HEALTHY

Healthy flocks is the happiness of all chicken owner, the healthy your chicken is the more your profits.
Raising chickens naturally has been my goal since my first flock. I’ve learned  that you can improve the health of your chickens with these important things:

GARLIC AND APPLE CIDER VINEGAR.

These two thing can help in healthy and improved health in your chicken.
This is simple and inexpensive way to keep your flock healthy and it will be discuss on how to go about it.

To improve the health of your chickens naturally let’s start with garlic.

Did you know that garlic is a natural antibiotic? I use garlic to keep my family healthy, as well as keeping my chickens naturally healthy. Studies have shown that raw garlic can improve heart health, lower blood pressure, fight colds and much more (source). My grandmother made a cough syrup from garlic and honey that I use to this day! Chickens can benefit from garlic too…and most of them love it!


IMPROVE THE HEALTH OF CHICKENS NATURALLY – FEED GARLIC 

Why? Just like garlic improves our health, it can improve the health of chickens naturally. Garlic can strengthen their immune system, boost the respiratory system, help to ward off lice and mites as well as act as a natural wormer.


How? So how do you give your chickens garlic? There are several ways. My best method is to simply crush bulbs and mince it; offer this as a treat all by itself or mixed with other treats. You can also add mashed whole cloves to water (3-4 cloves per gallon). Do not add to water if you use a galvanized steel water dispenser; this can leach chemicals into the water. If you do add it to your water make sure you only leave the garlic in for 2 – 3 days. If you don’t want to use fresh garlic you can add powdered garlic to feed, although I do not think this is as powerful as the fresh raw garlic.


When? You really only need to feed your chickens fresh garlic once or twice a month; too much of a good thing can be unhealthy for them. You can do the garlic in the water weekly because it is not as potent.

IMPROVE THE HEALTH OF CHICKENS NATURALLY – FEED APPLE CIDER VINEGAR (ACV) 

Why? Raw apple cider vinegar, like Braggs, can help your chickens naturally maintain optimum digestive health. It is also an immunity booster, rid a chicken of sour crop and generally improve their health.


How? The best way to feed ACV to your chickens is to add one tablespoon to every gallon of fresh water. Remember, this too, should not be add to metal water dispensers. You can give them a plastic water dispenser when you’re offering them the apple cider vinegar.

When? To give them the best of the ACV benefits you should plan to offer them the apple cider vinegar water 1 to 2 times a week. I have heard that some flock owners will do an entire week just once a month.

There you have it. How to improve the health of your chickens naturally with garlic and apple cider vinegar.
Given your chicken these two things will help in making them healthy and productive.

NATURAL WAYS TO TREATS CHICKEN LICE.

One of the common problem in raising backyard chicken is chicken's lice. Chicken lice is problem for chickens and also to the owners.
In this article, w will discuss and analyzed natural Chicken Lice Treatment.

What you’ll need for natural chicken lice treatment.

1. A shallow box or bin
2. A Dust Mask
3. Safety Goggles
4. Lice infested chickens
5. can wood ash.
6. Diatomeceuos earth

The wood ash can be sourced from a fire pit or wood stove. Any wood ash will work, as long as it hasn’t gotten wet and is completely cooled. It’s okay if it still has a few chunks of charcoal in it, there’s no need to be too picky.

The safety goggles and dust mask are for your protection. There will be dust flying everywhere, and believe me, you don’t want to inhale it or get it in your eyes. Please be careful when conducting this natural chicken lice treatment!

Step 1

Start off in a well ventilated area close to the chicken coop. We like to dust the chickens in the chicken run, because there’s plenty of fresh air and it’s fenced in, so there’s no risk of chickens escaping.

Carefully pour the diatomaceous earth and wood ash into your bin or box. You need these to go into the box in equal parts but there’s no need to measure, this isn’t exactly rocket science!

Stir the wood ash and DE to combine, being careful not to disturb it too much or it will go airborne.

Step 2
This step is much easier with a partner. Chickens magically develop super strength when they’re stressed out, and this step absolutely will stress them out. It’s tough to hold the chicken and dust her at the same time, if you can find some poor sucker who’s willing to help with this step, do so!

Gather one chicken at a time and bring them to the dusty bin. Hold the chicken’s wings against her body and put her head under your arm. Putting the hen’s head under your arm will make her feel calmer and you’ll be less likely to get frantic flapping chicken wings in your face.

Starting with the vent, dust the chicken generously with the DE/wood ash mixture. Hold the chicken over the box while you do this, so any excess dust falls back into the box. The hen does not need to be in the box, and it’s probably better if she isn’t because if her feet touch solid ground she’ll no doubt use that against you to try to escape.

Next dust under the chicken’s wings, along her abdomen, and across her back. There’s no need to get the dust all up her neck or around her face, you want to keep as much as this out of her lungs as possible so focus mostly on the body. While dusting make sure to ruffle the feathers so the dust gets on the chicken’s skin as much as possible.

Step 3

The previous step helped to kill the lice that were already on your hens, but guess what? Before you killed them, those lice laid eggs, and those eggs are going to hatch into new lice. If you look carefully at your chickens feathers you may see the eggs, they’ll appear as a white cluster around the feather shaft. Unfortunately there’s no easy way to kill chicken lice eggs, so you’ll have to wait until they hatch and then wreak havoc on them.

Repeat step 2 once every week until there are no more signs of lice on your chickens. This usually takes 2-3 weeks of treatments. I know it’s an disgusting job and no one wants to do it, but if you don’t keep up with treatments every week the lice will never die.

To prevent future outbreaks of chicken lice, you’ll need to help your chickens do what they do best, take dust baths! Set up a dust bin/box in the chicken run with equal parts wood ash, Diatomaceous Earth and soil or sand. Cover the dust bathing area to protect it from rain, wood ash and rain don’t mix well! Having a dust bathing area available will encourage your chickens to bathe more often, which will help keep lice from ever becoming a problem again.
Please comment below if you have use this natural cure before or you can drop and you have use that is working for you.

A-Z ABOUT BACKYARD CHICKEN FARMING

What are backyard chickens or Free range chickens

Free-range chickens are birds that are provided regular access to the outdoor, with an abundance of sunshine, fresh vegetation, and room to maneuver.Federal ordinances forbid the use of hormones in raising pork and poultry. The animal’s organic forage cannot contain animal by-products, antibiotics or genetically engineered cereals. Also, the food must not be grown using tenacious pesticides or chemical fertilizers. It solely means that the chickens are permitted to wander freely and devour food that is native to their diet. Farming of such chickens is known as free-range chicken farming.

Young chickens experience fresh pasture and are not bound in any way.

Eggs laid by free-range chickens

The eggs produced by free range chickens have a much greater nutritional content than the eggs bought from stores. Free-range eggs carry double the amount of Vitamin E and six times the amount of vitamin A. They also contain limited saturated fat and four times the omega-3 fatty acids. The cholesterol content is half as much as eggs laid by hens raised in factories and shelters. If you consume the meat of free-range chickens, it considered much more nutritious than the meat of factory raised chickens.

Why free range chicken farming over traditional chicken farming?

There are several reasons why people go for free range chicken farming these days.

1. Supply of high-quality food

Free range chickens give you an unlimited quantity of high-grade food. Since these chickens are raised in a natural environment and not fed unwanted chemicals, the eggs laid by them are rich in nutrition, and their meat is also very healthy.

2. Little space requirement

Since these chickens wander in the open during most of the day, they do not require large spaces for living. An individual living in an apartment can also purchase a portable chicken coop and raise free-range chickens. All you need to do is take them out in the open for food, water, and the sunshine.

3. Low cost maintenance

Free-range chickens depend on natural vegetation for food and hence their maintenance cost is low. No chemicals or chicken food is required to raise them, resulting in limited spending.

4. Reduced transmission of diseases

Since the chickens are not caged together or held in a coop, there are minimal chances of them getting a contagious disease.

  Helpful tips for free range chicken farming

If you are planning to take the free range chicken farming route, here are some helpful tips for you:

1. Make sure you buy high-quality chickens from a certified farm or  dealer

The first and the most important step in free-range poultry farming is purchasing chickens from a certified dealer. Carefully examine the breed you want to raise and ensure that it is free of any disease.

2. Take good care of the chickens until they are mature.

Keep the chicks inside a brooder till they have reached a grown period where they are ready to be brought out into the open.

3. Build a protective fence around their roaming area

Design a fenced area where the chickens may wander freely. Ensure that you keep it reasonably high to prevent the entrance of domestic hunters like cats. It does not have to be big space, but make sure that it is sufficient for the numbers of chicks that you are raising.

CHICKEN EYESIGHT

As beautiful as chicken is,  and profitable as chicken business can be, we as a chicken owner's should know the information on chicken eyesight.

Chicken eyesight is amazing! These chicken can see better color than humans, they can detect and see light and color shades better than humans, chicken have three eyelids, they can move each eye independently and have a 300 degree field of vision without turning their head before the can see.

Chickens see the same way we do. Light comes in through the cornea and iris and then stimulates nerve endings in the retina at the back of the eyeball. One of the big differences, however, is that chickens have tetra-chromatic vision, while we have tri-chromatic. Chickens have four wavelengths (blue, red, green and ultraviolet light) while human can only have three (blue, red and green.)

Chickens’ color vision is different from human because they have colored filters mixed with nerve cells. They are like little drops of oil filtering out different wavelengths and act similarly to wearing yellow goggles.

The fact that chickens see an extra sector of the light spectrum means that everything they see looks different from what human see. We have no description or idea for how much ultraviolet light is reflected from any substance. Chickens also have better motion sensing ability than we do. This is good to know if you use or plan on using artificial lights in your coop. These lights flicker on and off at a rate above what we can see. This is very annoying to your flock and may cause them to start bullying .

Birds as well as other mammals have a structure called a fovea in their retinas. It basically is a small pit that, because of its shape, acts as an image enlarger. Chickens have two foveae, which act a little differently. One is for distant vision, and one is for close up. The interesting thing is that the up close one is oval and sideways and that’s why, when you approach your chicken, they will often bob their heads and tilt their heads sideways to get the image of you into a clearer view. Shockingly, chickens actually can’t really recognize flock members until they are within about 24 inches.

Now don’t go drawing any conclusions that chickens are the best seeing creatures on the planet! Chickens, like humans and other animals, are blind when its completely dark. We need color and/or light to see so when there is no light we cannot see. Chickens, however, are blind when it is not completely dark. Regarding this issue, since chickens are like zombies at night, it makes them highly easy target to predators at night.

Sometimes when we take a picture of our chicken we see that the chicken’s eye is hazy-looking. At first glance this looks like a glitch in the camera but actually, this is the chicken’s third eyelid called the nictitating membrane. The nictitating membrane is positioned next to the eyeball, underneath its other two eyelids and works independently from them. It operates by sliding from the front to the back of the eye. It has two purposes: cleaning and protecting. When a chicken takes a dirt bath, you will see the nictitating membrane appear. This is because it is protecting the eye from dirt entry. Another time you may see it appear is when your flock is sleeping. They sometimes don’t close their eyes completely and thus, the nictitating membrane covers the eye instead.
Don't forget, looks on your chicken eye can help to detect sickness in them.

HOW TO KEEP CHICKEN COOL DURING HOT WEATHER

During hot weather there some few simple little things that we do inexpensively to help keep our chickens healthy, happy, and comfortable during the hot weather.. The last thing that I want is for our chickens to suffer or get ill from heat exhaustion. That’s why learning how to keep your chickens cool in summer is so important for anyone who raises backyard chickens.

We live in an area where we are not only graced with hot temperatures during the summer, but we also have a lot of humidity. It can become very uncomfortable for not only human, but also our animals as well. The heats may be unbearable to our chicken if correct measure is not taking.

THESE ARE THE TIPS FOR KEEPING CHICKENS COOL DURING HOT WEATHER

1. Provide fresh cool water and change the water frequently, especially during exceptionally hot days.

2. Give your chickens some shade to hide out and stay cool. The shade will help the chickens to stay cool.

3.Ensure that the chicken coop/housing is well ventilated especially during hot weather

4. Avoid foods like corn, scratch grains or anything that is harder to digest during the hotter days. Since these types of foods are harder to digest, it creates more body heat for the chickens.

5. Provide frozen treats, such as, frozen water melon, grapes, or blueberries. I like to freeze cucumbers in these silicone muffin cups with water for a little summer time treat. These will helps the chickens to cool their temps.

6. Other frozen food ideas: freeze fruits, veggies, and a little bit of herbs with just a little amount of water in these silicone muffin cups. Then, I’ll chop it up a little to create a simple slushy treat.

7. Create a chicken piñata by using a head of iceberg lettuce (big on water content) and hang with some twice. It creates fun entertainment for the chickens, too!

8. Fill a kiddie pool with just a couple of inches of water for chickens to cool off in. Chickens can’t swim, so only a couple of inches is needed.

Most chickens don’t like the water, but there are a few of ours that enjoy the kid pool.

Remember, to much heat can make your chickens sick and it can lead to death.

TEACHING CHILDREN HUMILITY

How to teach your children humility

1. Give praise when it is truly deserved.
If your children score well on a school test, commend them  if she get a low grade , do not automatically blame the teacher. That for actual accomplishments.

2. Give correction when necessary. This does not mean that you should criticize your child for every mistake. But serious error should be corrected , the same can be wrong attitudes. Otherwise, these may become more deeply ingrained.

3. Encourage your children. Prove to your child that, there is more happiness in giving than receiving.
You and your children can prepare a list of people in need of help with transportation, or repair work. Then
take your children along as you assist some of them. Allow your children to see your joy and satisfaction as you care for the needs of others. That way you will teach your children humility in the most powerful way.

4. Prepare your children for life's realities. Indulging a child's every wish can cause him to feel entitled. for example , if your child wants something you cannot afford, explain why it is necessary to live within a budget . if you have to cancel an outing or a vacation , you could explain that disappointments are part of life and perhaps discuss how you deal with such disappointments. Rather than shield your children from every hardship, prepare them for the challenges they will face as adults.