Life at the intersection of electronics, software and poultry.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
About flippin' time!!
The first egg was actually laid two days ago, but I held off saying anything to my (now) 8 year-old so he could think the chickens were waiting for his birthday to lay eggs :-)
Hi Laura: Thanks :-) They are laying a bit more regularly now. I just built a light out of high-power LEDs since the days are getting so short now. It has to run from batteries so I needed the highest-efficiency lighting I could get. Now I need to find a timer to turn it on for an extra 4 hours of light.
As far as ranging goes: I do let them out sometimes while I hang around to be sure the dog stays away. My experience has been that they don't wander very far. The area around by 20x30 fenced area has the veggie garden and lots of tall grass. Even when one manages to jump the fence, she stays very close by.
I am building a small attached run because some nights I may get home a few hours after dark. That way I can let them outside, but they'll still be protected from whatever predator decides to dig under the fence.
Good luck with your birds. IIRC, when I was a kid, my father had geese in with the chickens and they got along OK.
3 comments:
CONGRATULATIONS!
Hi Laura:
Thanks :-) They are laying a bit more regularly now. I just built a light out of high-power LEDs since the days are getting so short now. It has to run from batteries so I needed the highest-efficiency lighting I could get. Now I need to find a timer to turn it on for an extra 4 hours of light.
As far as ranging goes: I do let them out sometimes while I hang around to be sure the dog stays away. My experience has been that they don't wander very far. The area around by 20x30 fenced area has the veggie garden and lots of tall grass. Even when one manages to jump the fence, she stays very close by.
I am building a small attached run because some nights I may get home a few hours after dark. That way I can let them outside, but they'll still be protected from whatever predator decides to dig under the fence.
Good luck with your birds. IIRC, when I was a kid, my father had geese in with the chickens and they got along OK.
Goodness--my Rhode Island Reds were due to lay late May. I had given up hope, decided that I had somehow ended up with spinster chickens.
But today, the blessed event occurred. Not one, but two pretty brown eggs. Whoo hoo! I cackled louder than they did!
~lpc
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