With a background in electronics, computer hardware, software, and networking, I have developed a knack for troubleshoot things. Sometimes, on the farm – it isn’t quite that easy.
Dealing with “electrically alive” systems is NOT the same as dealing with “biologically alive” systems. There are some things I just don’t know, or understand about the biological systems – but then, I might add, neither do the geneticists that insist on tampering with the natural rhythm of life on this planet and destroying natural species of plant and animal – or modifying them without fully considering the repercussions of those alterations – but… I’m walking down a bunny trail here.
The “system” in this case is the chicken, and the issue is the mysterious loss of eggs. Eggs from our 70+ hens. Normal output is approximately 4 dozen of these little golden treasures on any given day.
We have had chickens for about 3 years now, and they don’t seem to be a mystery to us any longer – or should I say, they didn’t seem to be a mystery. We have read numerous books, done research on the web, and of course – we have at least 3 years of experience…
We have had lapses in laying in the summer due to weather changes, or stress ( like when the boys forget to water them in the middle of summer and it’s 90 degrees outside), or because of the decrease of light-hours per day. But I must admit, that all my troubleshooting prowess had failed me miserably on this issue.
We were missing eggs!! No, the farm dogs didn’t get them and no animals got them – there were no telltale signs.. .like the cracked pieces of shells left over. Plus, when a varmint gets eggs, they usually like them so much… they come back for the layer!
Anyway, the chickens had been down in production for about 2 weeks. I did notice that there were a lot of feathers around – more than usual – but I didn’t put 2 + 2 together. I had sent the boys on an egg hunt – to the hay barn, out in the fallow pasture where there are tall grass and some weeds – all of the places that chickens like to hide eggs ( but where we always find them).
It wasn’t until I received an email this morning from my lovely wife that everything came back into perspective – the chickens were molting!
Well, of course they were! I had read up on this phenomena; once a year, they will lose all of the feathers and replenish them. A new coat – and it takes all of their energy to manufacture it. We had this happen 2 summers ago, but it was not to this extent – not all hens molted, and it was in summer. We are in the middle of an out-and-out revolt! I mean “remolt“! It seems that this year, all 70+ hens decided to molt at the same time!!!
Well, I have to explain this to our customers who have been very happy with egg delivery – until the last 2 weeks. And I have to tell them that it could last a couple of weeks longer.
I guess once you get over 50 – the first troubleshooting step should be to make sure your own memory system is functioning normally before attempting to troubleshoot any other type of system. And if it’s a biological system – all bets are off…
Pat
Tags: chickens, eggs, feathers, hens, molting, moulting, poultry