Turning A Bad Breeding Season Around Part 1 Poor Breeding Condition

There is still time to turn a bad breeding season around!! Yesterday, a blogger wrote: "What's wrong, my hen laid only one egg and s she won't even set on it!" Single eggs and not setting are examples of heat eggs where the hen has been pushed to lay but she likely did not mate with the male and she does not have incubation temperature to set. First make sure your lighting is consistent and a total of 14 -14 1/2 hours daily. If you have them on less hours increase the lighting in one day to 14 or 14 1/2hours. If you are longer than that, do not drop the total day hours as this will precipitates a molt. Start the birds on a poultry vitamin & electrolyte product such as this one I recently picked up at a feed store. I use 1/4 teaspoon to a gallon of water, Back up feeding the high protein foods. Instead, feed an egg-less nesting food such as Doyle's egg-less nesting food recently posted.Avoid high protein foods such as hard boiled egg, spiruiina,  and insects. This method also works well for hens that just won't come into breeding condition provided they are not thin.

Updated photo of the nest of Five. The three larger ones are banded and although much smaller, the little chicks are coming along fine. The three larger ones resemble the father while the two small white ones appear to be mosaics like the mom.

Garden time, planting tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and lots of herbs!