Is it just me?

[GBov]

Or is every bird in Florida molting ALL THE BLOODY TIME???

So far, in the last 6 weeks I have "sorted out" 15 roosters, 4 ducks, 3 turkeys and 2 old hens.

All molting.

Over the last few years, I have processed birds of all kinds in every month of the year.

All MOLTING! :evil:

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, it doesn't matter the time of year or the temps, if I kill a bird it is sure to be covered in pin feathers and ten times harder to do than a non-molting bird. Or in the case of ducks and geese, a million times harder.

Sorry to rant but the turkeys today were the last straw. :evil:

And the 6 hens that we got a three weeks ago that were laying when we got them? Now not laying and in full, you guessed it, molt!

 

[michaels4gardens]

bummer.....

 

[GBov]

bummer.....

Yeh, so instead of feeding a flock of 4, non-laying chickens I am now feeding 9, non-laying chickens.

 

[michaels4gardens]

When I lived in Orange Springs... I had a lot of late summer troubles with my older laying hens [the young ones laid right on through] -- I think, the long hot summers are just too much for some of them... When it began to cool down , they would begin to lay again-- by the time it got down to 12 degrees they all wanted to stop again... The "free range" situation helped tremendously with the summer slow-down, but- fencing off the garden area well enough to keep a couple hundred chickens out- [when they wanted in] was constantly problematic... It is amazing what a few chickens can do to a kale row, in just a few minutes...

 

[GBov]

When I lived in Orange Springs... I had a lot of late summer troubles with my older laying hens [the young ones laid right on through] -- I think, the long hot summers are just too much for some of them... When it began to cool down , they would begin to lay again-- by the time it got down to 12 degrees they all wanted to stop again... The "free range" situation helped tremendously with the summer slow-down, but- fencing off the garden area well enough to keep a couple hundred chickens out- [when they wanted in] was constantly problematic... It is amazing what a few chickens can do to a kale row, in just a few minutes...

Like, OMG! Even the dog chasing rats can't do as much damage as a few hens!

In the entire flock of 9 - yeh, not much of a flock really :lol: - only one is old, all the rest are young birds, between 9 and 18 months of age.

If even two or three were laying it would be fine but gods damn it, the ONE that was laying stopped when I got the extra hens and the new ones were great for 6 days and then BAM, feathers start falling off and they stop laying.

So no eggs for us and more mouths to feed! verreaction:

Never mind, I am now used to picking pin feathers - you should have seen the ducks, it was like plucking the same bird four times and even then we ate loads of roasted feathers :lol: - and the chickens have figured out if they go over the fence at the pig pen they can go next door to the falling down house to forage so are mostly heading there instead of the garden.

I will admit to having yelled at them "FINE, go get EATEN!!!" when trying to herd them all back to safety. Herding cats is easier than herding chickens!

 

[MaggieJ]

Herding cats?!? :shock: :? Talk about Mission Impossible.

If your garden is not right in the public eye, a work-around that we discovered is to lash sticks with zip ties vertically to the fence posts and run a two foot length of chicken wire around the top perimeter. The extra two feet discourages them, and even if you have one that can fly that high, they don't like the flimsiness of the chicken wire so usually will not be able to pause at the top.

Thank goodness geese are easy to herd, and our chickens usually follow Elsie down to the coop at night. Usually. Every so often they give Brian trouble, just to keep him on his toes.

Edited to add: Our hens and goose are moulting at present too. They're late this summer.

 

[akane]

We had so many eggs even using a dozen bantam eggs to make scrambled eggs in the morning that I had about a 6 month supply at any time. Eventually I'd have to go through the back of the fridge and declare what was dog eggs.

While not a herding breed at all my akita was useful for collecting chickens. One thing she does do great is protect a spot. "Stand" "Stay" point down the gap I don't want chickens past and tell her to "stop the chickens". A few indignant chickens later they were all funneled to one spot with only the odd missing feather. It probably worked better than actually herding since they will scatter when something runs at them but spook together from a single direction of danger. Now guinea fowl..... Azami found those chickens that weren't chickens confusing and frustrating. :lol: They mostly became owl food because I was not getting out a ladder to drag them down and stick them in the coop.