Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[satay]

Hay Satay (and anyone else who breeds Marans), with your Marans are you able to identify in any way which individual lays the best eggs?

I have two Marans laying at the moment and one is laying a very nice colour egg while the other is not. Is there anyway I can ID who the lighter laying hen is so that I can put her into the laying flock pen?

I was thinking I'd just have to separate each chicken and see who lays what, but that might stress them and stop their laying?!

I separate any that I want to know who is laying what. Should only need to do it for a couple of days if they are laying well.

 

[Meeka3]

I haven't been on here for ages but just reading back over some of the posts, I wanted to share my chooks laying habits. I have one Lohman brown that has laid a huge egg every single day for two and a half years and even though she had a small moult on her wings, is still laying. Three other chooks who have been through a big moult are now (very cold winter) laying again. Three more Lohman browns have laid every day sinse they were old enough a couple of months ago, and all my other chooks have always laid right through winter except if they were moulting. I have anconas, light Sussex, barnevelders, araucanas, mixed breed, and my three babies, Wyandotte, Indian Cornish, and frizzle bantam have all just started laying a couple of weeks ago. I didn't even know there was an issue with not laying in winter because it has never happened with me.

 

[satay]

I haven't been on here for ages but just reading back over some of the posts, I wanted to share my chooks laying habits. I have one Lohman brown that has laid a huge egg every single day for two and a half years and even though she had a small moult on her wings, is still laying. Three other chooks who have been through a big moult are now (very cold winter) laying again. Three more Lohman browns have laid every day sinse they were old enough a couple of months ago, and all my other chooks have always laid right through winter except if they were moulting. I have anconas, light Sussex, barnevelders, araucanas, mixed breed, and my three babies, Wyandotte, Indian Cornish, and frizzle bantam have all just started laying a couple of weeks ago. I didn't even know there was an issue with not laying in winter because it has never happened with me.

It more comes down to when they are born. Some will lay all winter long and some go on strike for agers like my girls. It's more of an old wives tale about them not laying over winter most of the time.

 

[appps]

Just chased a big black cat out of my yard grrrrr

Do you think it would be a danger to a silkie? I threw a tennis ball at it and hit the fence just below it and scarred the c rap out of it lol so hopefully it won't return

 

[K Spot]

Your chickens are not weird anni . I find most of my bantams refuse to use a nest box and prefer to lay on the ground. I'm not too fussed. Whatever works for them is fine by me.

I have a huge old light sussex hen that doesn't roost. She's content on the ground and has made herself a nice little bed on top of shavings so I let her be. On some nights Whoppi joins her, other nights she's roosting with the others. I just leave them be, unless they have take up residence in the nest boxes.

In other news - I heard a bit of a weird comment from my Nan yesterday when I went to visit her. She said she had a lady around to do some work on one of her horses and mentioned what a nice rooster Nan had. Nan replied I don't have a rooster, which chicken are you talking about. This woman pointed to one of Nan's big light sussex and said "That one, his comb and wattles are big and red, that's a rooster".
Nan apparently was a bit bewildered and said she'd never heard it crow and just before the cold, the chicken was laying. This woman said a chicken can change it's sex from a hen to a rooster and that my Nan definitely had a rooster.

When I visited her yesterday she told me all of this and asked if I've ever seen it before. I told her it was impossible for a chicken to change it's gender, but that it wasn't unheard of for a hen to take on the role of a rooster in the absence of one; attempting to crow and mounting the other hens.
She then took me over to see the bird in question - I told her immediately that the chicken was no rooster, that my light sussex hen looked nearly identical with big red wattles and comb. She was relived that the hen wasn't a rooster.
Nan told me this lady insisted she's seen it happen in a couple of cases. I just shook my head no.

 

[aliyah7404]

Just chased a big black cat out of my yard grrrrr

Do you think it would be a danger to a silkie? I threw a tennis ball at it and hit the fence just below it and scarred the c rap out of it lol so hopefully it won't return

that sucks indint think it will come afain though it has happened to me before

 

[satay]

Just chased a big black cat out of my yard grrrrr

Do you think it would be a danger to a silkie? I threw a tennis ball at it and hit the fence just below it and scarred the c rap out of it lol so hopefully it won't return

While I have never had a silkie I do have Belgians and they are tiny. My cat gives them wide birth or little grey belg would rip his eyes out if he got to close I would wreckon I have seen my cat and my black pekin roo in a fight. Neither would back down so I had to separate them. Neither got any injuries from the experience and this is my cat who has taken down patsy the 2 day old sheep, taken down our neighbours puppy and one of my sons friends 6 week old staffy(he launched on top of them with claws dug in and I had to literally shake him of them) but on the most part he is terrified of chickens.

 

[appps]

Quote:
My silkie is bottom of the rung, and scared of her own shadow ;-)

 

[satay]

Quote:
My silkie is bottom of the rung, and scared of her own shadow ;-)

You might need to keep an eye on her then appps. All my girls seem to have an attitude can't say there is any bottom of the rung girls in any of my pens. The roosters seem to have a pecking order but not the hens so much.

 

[Teila]

Tee hee satay. So when the wheel-less wheelie got home did someone ask it “where ya bin?”

Sorry, I know that was bad! I will slap myself

appps I have two indoor cats with an outdoor run and it really peeves me [

] that I am always chasing neighbourhood cats out of my yard and away from my bantams! The girls always raise the alarm if I am not out in the garden; the coop and run are cat and dog proof and free range is always supervised because of everyone else’s pets!

I most definitely would not trust a strange cat around my gals and yep, I do think it would be a danger to a Silkie.

K Spot I actually did read a story about a chicken in the UK which reportedly turned into a rooster but this one was crowing and stopped laying. It also was not fertile. It did, however, reportedly grow it’s combs and wattles and crowed every morning. An expert or Vet or whatever, said that it can and does happen in some rooster-less flocks.