Hen lights

 Egg-laying is related to length of daylight. And as daylight hours have fallen, so has the number of eggs . 

So we are trying some artificial lighting to see if we can boost production ( and hence sales !) 

First, a battery .

 

 And a waterproof container to keep it in. 

And I need a timer . The lights need to augment the start of the day . Giving them light after they have roosted , which then goes off  and then daylight comes confuses them ( if such a thing is possible) and doesn't lead to increased laying .

 

 

 

 

And there is a manual override to prove it works !

 

An its in  place.

We'll see how it goes - i can always add a 2nd internal light  or put some low-wattage external spotlights outside. 

Gallussian resuscitation

The latin name for the domestic fowl is gallus gallus domesticus

its time to move the mother and the chicks to the outside run. So 7 have hatched. And when we looked ,the last one was half in and half out of its shell. 

What to do ? Put it on the grass and hope the mother would  keep it warm whilst it escaped from the rest of its shell and  then look after it or help it a bit. So we decided to help it a bit. 

In a plastic bowl floating on hot water ( to keep it warm) , gently removing the rest of the shell and then keeping it warm whilst it dried out.

And then successfully resuscitated  it was returned under the hen and , at the last look, was  starting to explore its new home  .