Itcan be difficult to keep chickens tidy , lusty and laying fruitfully through thecolder fall and winter calendar month , but it can be done , say the author of the honest-to-goodness - metre domestic fowl Book we ’ll calculate at in this clause . Some , in fact , prefer winter chickens . Myrtle Wilcoxon was one of these .
“ skirt can abide cold atmospheric condition better than extreme heat , ” she wrote inCommon Sense on Poultry Raising(1906 ) . “ Disease , lice and mite always get along with summer months . The expense of feeding is no greater in winter . Profits can be realized from broods hatch in November , December and January . ”
wintertime hatching , she explicate , do n’t grow as fast as spring biddy , but they feather out quicker in winter months , are more firm and compact , and are just the veracious size to sell in April and May . The larger breeds do good , she advised , add this astounding input : “ One wintertime , I raised 500 in a vacant room in the house . I could almost see them acquire . ”
Feeding
provide hens a balanced diet was more difficult before the advent of bagged commercial feed , and each of our writer has a unlike take on what pull in wintertime chickens check .
For basic winter feed , Wilcoxon suggested clipped clover hay , green cut bones ( “ the raw bones from the stumbler , ” but we ’d in all probability substitute bone repast today ) and pale yellow . Meat is also an of import part of a hen ’s diet .
“ Lean meat , or its equivalent in insect life , is one of the requirement of egg product , ” she wrote . “ If meat in some shape was supply day by day , there would be sufficient eggs secured , over and above the identification number that would be find without the use of meat , to not only pay for the meat but to increase the lucre . ”
Wilcoxon does n’t recommend the in high spirits food grain diet some other writer prefer . “ On the reach , the pullet have been habituate to a large amount of employment and a great multifariousness of intellectual nourishment , and taking them from the above in the descent when pose or just at laying , limit them and feed them mostly grain is not calculated to fight them right as to laying , ” she wrote . “ The opposite happens , and the brilliant harvest of eggs in prospect vanishes . ”
Wilcoxon also cautioned that some hen lay well only when they ’re what might be term as “ rich , ” but few or no hen lie in well when they are “ lean . ” “ [ This ] teach us that most eggs total from hens well - nourished and in good stipulation , ” she wrote .
Edward Farrington , author ofThe Home Poultry Book(1913 ) , agree that well - fed hens lay more testicle , and that getting them to consume enough to stay in prime condition is important . “ It must be remembered that in midwinter the biddy keep short hours , ” he write . “ With two - thirds of their time spent on the roost , they should have no time to waste during the day . The poultry custodian need them to run through all they will , and a interfering hen has a much good appetence than one which stands around lazily . ”
Farrington also offered a recipe for a nourishing mash , which would run as well for today ’s wintertime poulet as it did more than a century ago :
“ Try fertilise a ardent crumbly mash , contain a liberal amount of beef scrap or meat of any kind , once a daylight , two or three time a workweek . A teaspoonful of mustard for each 25 biddy may be let in in this mash , which , for the eternal rest , may be made of two office bran , one part of earth oats and one part of Indian meal . ”
A.T. Johnson , who wroteChickens and How to Raise Them(1909 ) , believed that November is anespecially important month in a crybaby - steward ’s year . The pullet , he wrote , command particular attention this calendar month as regards feeding . He advised feed meat chip or green - bone and allowing some maize occasionally in the afternoon .
“ Keep the house dry and well littered and encourage scratching exercise under natural covering in bad weather , ” he write . “ commend that dampness retards ball production , and the layers must be kept well-situated without being coddle . Some pea or bean meal will be a utile addition to the staple dieting , and flaxseed meal is also extremely beneficial in cold , dampish weather . ”
Extras
But feeding winter chickens is n’t everything . “ Of course , the biddy should be given all the H2O they need , as well as grit and oyster carapace , ” Farrington note . “ A box of charcoal is also worth while . It is even more important in winter than in summer to provide everything that is needed for the making of orchis and to keep the hens in first - class condition . ”
A dust bathing tub in the henhouse for winter poulet is important , too , and Farrington detailed how to make a expert one .
“ It is useless to bear the hen to lay well if they are feed upon by louse , so a debris bath is very necessary , unless there is an earth trading floor into which the birdie can tunnel , ” he publish . A few upright board can be fasten together to make a dusting position , and world or ashes with a little lime added given for the dot cloth .
ember ashes are beneficial , except that they tend to pluck the plume of its luster . “ hen like coal ashes and will consume many of them , ” Farrington indite . “ juiceless backbone is often used , but the fowls seem to prefer heavier earth . It is well for the amateur to lay in a barrel of earthly concern or route dust in the fall to be used in the course of the winter . ”
Winter Eggs
Alfred Gibson , writer ofMy Poultry Day by Day(1917 ) , defined the condition “ winter eggs ” this way : “ When one speaks of wintertime egg , what does one mean ? ” she asked . “ Not , as the layman would assume , January , February and March , when the hoarfrost is hard , the snow most persistent and the cold most general . The worst month of the year for eggs , as will be see from the print Price , are October , November and December . By winter nut , then , we mean really only the last three or four month of the year . ”
Winter weather condition , he wrote , is n’t why hen fail to produce . “ Some people seem to guess the reason why hens do not lay in winter is because of the cold weather , ” Gibson wrote . “ That is not the real reason . If birdie are warmly housed and properly feed , the winter low temperature , except in very terrible and farsighted , uphold frosts and cold winds , wo n’t step in with the bollock production . ”
The whoremaster to harvesting winter nut , our authors contend , is to keep first - year pullets instead of old hens . “ The cause why birds in their second year do n’t lie to any extent in the last three months of the year is that they have been moulting and have n’t yet stimulate all the extra elan vital that run to the originative impulse , ” Gibson wrote . “ Few snort consist and molt at the same time . It ’s quite unimaginable , then , to get a generous supply of early wintertime orchis from fowls in their second twelvemonth . It ’s necessary then , to fall backupon the 9 - month - old pullet for winter eggs . ”
Clinton Down , author ofThe Liberty Manual ofChickens(1919 ) concurred : “ Whether you hatchthe eggs or whether you buy the chickensmakes no divergence , the time of hatch is what counts , ” Down spell . “ Light weight active breeds , like the White Leghorn , must be hatch later than heavier breeds that take a longer metre to modernise . March , April and May are the hatch months and the clock time of hatching can be specify in that period according to the nature of the stock . Chicks hatched too early will moult before wintertime as a rule , and that have in mind no wintertime eggs . ”
Farrington summed up the result for good winter - laying nicely . “ utilise pullet which give the lay geezerhood before settle inhuman weather , ” he compose . “ domiciliate them in their permanent wintertime quarters by the first of October ; keep these quarters ironic and complimentary from bill of exchange , but with fresh aura entering in abundance at all times ; keep a deep litter on the floor so that the hen will be obliged to scratch energetically and persistently for their metric grain ; give them a wide variety of ration ; and the eggswill be reasonably sure to come . ”
This story in the beginning appeared in the November / December 2018 issue ofChickensmagazine .
