Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
just beginning to lay in September suddenly stop laying and molt if they have been lay-
ing a month or more. Light is the biggest determining factor for egg production for these
young pullets. However, chickens can be encouraged to continue to lay eggs.
You can control a chicken's molting and egg-laying cycles to a large degree by regu-
lating the amount of light in their living quarters. To keep them from molting in the fall,
you have to trick them with an artificial “daytime” environment created by supplemental
lighting. If you do this, however, the following year they will probably quit laying very
early compared to their normal mid-September to mid-October.
EGGS THE YEAR THROUGH
Developing a plan that will ensure your family has eggs year-round involves bringing
young hens into production as your older stock takes a rest. This is sometimes dif-
ficult if you run them all together; it works best if you have two separate buildings.
If facility spaces are limited, you may need to divide your building with a temporary
wall or dark tarp of sorts, with electric lighting on one side and only natural light on
the other. Otherwise it's a challenge to provide your fatigued layers with the rest they
need, and have the young ones coming into production with proper levels of calcium
and nutrition and enough light to lay well.
You'll need to experiment to find out what works best in your particular environment
and with your flock. The amount of artificial light provided determines how long molt-
ing can be delayed. It cannot be prevented completely, though; eventually, they will go
into a molt. Many of the modern sex-link chickens' tendency to molt can be controlled
until roughly 12 to 15 months of continuous production, but then molting occurs.
Stewing Hens
Once the birds have completed the laying cycle and you have planned properly for their
replacements, these hens make a decent-sized, 4- to 6-pound (2-3 kg) stewing hen.
Cooked, they make a deep, rich broth, and meat that's excellent for chicken pie, chicken
casseroles, Moroccan-style stew, or other international or homegrown stewed chicken
dishes. You would never want to fry one of these old hens, as it would be extremely
tough. Even baked, an older hen can be rather chewy; but an old bird that is boiled can
produce a rich, thick broth and palatable meat.
When considering which sorts of birds you'll raise, keep in mind that from dual-pur-
pose flocks you get edible roosters early on, more than decent egg production for several
