Ex-bat Chicken Diary: Month Three

Total number of Eggs: 326

Monthly egg count: 117

Average per week: 27

Average hen egg production efficiency compared to an ‘unspent’ hen: 81% 

The last month showed a high production rate compared to the egg production of a hen in its prime.  The increasing production since their re-homing I believe to be due to high levels of daylight and them becoming even more settled into their home.

Trust of the hen’s has been growing such to the extent that we have allowed them supervised roaming of the garden.  We started them off slowly allowing one hen at a time a few minutes in the garden.  Gradually they became use to the garden and moved around the garden testing plants within the beds to see what tickled their fancy.  Towards the end of the month we let all five out together under supervision, they had a good time as once one found something to eat they all went running to investigate; Nicky had fun scratching at the ground underneath the our cherry tree looking for bugs.  I can see that if left unsupervised we would not have much of the garden left as they did jump onto the vegetable begs and would have gone wondering through the plant borders if left to their own will.  In small manageable amounts letting the hens out in the garden gives them some extra roaming space and they are good at finding the weeds in the lawn.

Setting up  
Hen houses
Ex-bat v Chicks  
Feeding
Health/Welfare
Eggs
FAQ
Links
Ex-bat Hen Diary
  Our Set-up
  Collection Day
  Month One
  Month Two 
  Month Three 
  Winter Year One


Lewis Williams