As previously mentioned, Landlady’s Brahmas seem to be played out. If you’re a chicken in the Gulch and you’re not laying eggs, you’ll provide food some other way. You won’t like that.
This is the beginning of the Brahmas’ third year. They’re sold as “dual-purpose” birds, so unlike the old Rhode Island Reds they might still be worth eating. Selma was a challenge even stewed to pieces in a pressure cooker.
But just when the decision had been made to send all the lazy hippies to chicken heaven, one of them laid an egg. Yesterday somebody laid another, identical egg. Landlady assumed it was Agnes, who was always a good layer before this past molt, but from the shape and color I think it was one or more Brahma.
It doesn’t really matter that much; they’re surely about played out, and two eggs in a week doesn’t pay the feed for half a dozen birds.
But if one bird has decided to have a last laying season I’m willing to go along with the joke and move her to the Fortress of Attitude. Hell, they’re not worth that much as meat birds either, so…
Since I don’t have any trap nests, I’m isolating each Brahma for a couple of days to see if anybody lays an egg in the cage. Each bird will be banded if she isn’t already, and by the end of next week I’ll know which bird, if any, is getting productive after the last molt.
So this is sort of an ad-hock appeals process?
Just have to grin and say that you folks work much too hard at this. 🙂 Start new chicks every two years. Butcher all the old ones when the new ones start laying eggs. The meat is still good at that point, and you get more eggs for your bucks – and labor.
Setting up an old folks home for chickens that may still lay an egg or two once in a while is not cost effective. Do a simple spreadsheet on production compared to feed costs… add your labor time if you want, though that’s harder to pinpoint.
That’s probably what it will settle down to, ML. We’ve only been doing this a few years now, and I’m still learning ropes. Last year was the first time I ever raised them from chicks – local availability is very spotty.
Mostly I’m just having fun with it. Obviously the most time-and-money-efficient thing to do would be to kill them all and get on with life, and that’s probably what I’ll end up doing. Think of this as more of a learning opportunity – dead prisoners tell you nothing.
Indeed… sometimes we have to do something for a while before we figure out if we really want to do it. 🙂 I boarded some sheep for a few weeks once… I was very glad to get rid of them, and concluded that sheep were one animal I never wanted to deal with again. They can make chickens seem downright sensible sometimes. LOL Hard as that may be to believe.
Am I the only person who thought of this?
http://thumbpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/funny-chicken-joke-eggs-cartoon1.jpg
It might(or not) be worth waiting a month or so to decide who’s done laying. Chickens commonly stop laying in the shorter days of winter and might(or not) start laying again as the days get longer and they have more light. I’ve had chickens lay well beyond 2 or 3 years, but they were mostly Dominique and Barred Rock. Maybe it’s a breed thing.
Yeah, the Brahmas had one really good year as layers. Last year they were terrible, with 2-3 eggs/day between eight hens. I wondered if they’d lay at all this year.