Our girls are really getting into gear

We got 13 eggs today! We'll be butchering some of our chickens week after next while Joe is on leave. There's no way we can keep up with all those eggs. We had one hen that was thinking about going broody, but she wasn't serious about it yet. I'm hoping this flock will hatch out some this year so we don't have to buy any more.

Start freezing some for when they slow down.

Our RIR's usually lay year round. They slow down some in the colder months, but not alot. I had froze some with our first flock because I was afraid they would slow way down in the winter. We never needed the frozen ones and ended up scrambling them to feed to the dogs.

Mine are not laying right now. They have gone on strike. I think they are just taking a break right now. They will pick up in the next week, They are getting older. Our new ones we hatched are not old enough yet. Wesley has tamed all the new ones to sit onhis shoulder and walk around with him. I have started calling him the chicken whisperer. Hubby says it is not good but the chickens seem to like it.

I've always been afraid of getting too attached to ours because I know I wouldn't be able to butcher them when the time comes.

Right now we only have enough for Egg production. We are going to get meat chickens next spring and the kids wont be able to play with them. These are around for a while. That way when the kids feed them thry dont get attacked is the only good thing I see in the taming factor,

I can see letting Ty tame one if we were just using them for eggs. We got Rhode Island Reds for dual purpose though. We don't have a problem with them attacking us when we feed them because we keep their food and water inside the chicken house and we lock the chickens outside while we gather eggs and feed and water them. It seems to work ok for us. We've never had any trouble with our hens trying to attack, but had a rooster in the last batch we had that got mean. Joe was glad to dispatch that one.

We take our roosters and clip thier spurs. Hubby goes out after dark picks him up. Hangs him by his feet upside down and cuts it off with a pair of clippers or knife. That way we dont get attacked. We had a rooster for Bekkas Pet once that attacked any thing and every thing and that is when he started doing that.

We had considered that, but figured that one of the roosters duties was to protect the flock. If we didn't have a way to keep him from attacking us then we would definitely cut off the spurs. When you cut off the spurs, how do you stop the bleeding?

We are getting enough eggs for us right now from our older hens. The young ones we ordered this year look so ratty. LOL They should be finished moulting and start putting on their winter garb soon. I will be glad when they start laying. I'm looking for October or early November. If they don't lay then I'm going to be very dissappointed in them.

We don't have any chickens that try to attack us but we have a game hen that will attack any other hen that she's around so we let her free range to protect the other hens. She's mean!