Here at Evans Chickens we have families of pure breed Australorp, Light Sussex and Dark Barred Plymouth Rocks chickens who are enjoying the grass that has grown after the recent rain. Many of our chickens have or are in the process of molting and as a result are not laying any eggs – all of their energy is being put into growing feathers and restocking vitamins in their bodies for the coming breeding season.
Some of the young pullets that we kept from this year are just beginning to lay, but this is mainly the Australorp pullets. The Light Sussex and Barred Rock breeds seem to be very influenced by diminished daylight hours and as a result we are seeing maybe one barred rock egg a day and no light sussex eggs.
As a result we are not currently incubating as we are not collecting enough eggs to justify the cost of running the incubators, brooders and purchasing vaccines (which usually is a minimum quantity of 1000 doses). Hopefully by July we can again fill the incubator and have some chicks available for purchase.
We are missing the opportunity to enter the agricultural shows this year as some of our birds are looking magnificent. COVID-19 has certainly had an effect on our lives – seems that everyone has finally had time to put in the chook house that they where always going to build.