Sumatra Thread!

[zach N houdan]

My Sumatras are pretty good layers. All of mine come from Tom's line. In the spring into the fall my hens lay about 3-4 eggs each a week. Right now with it being 18 degrees out the only ones laying are my bantam Leghorns and some of my Sumatra Hens!

 

[Nickeechickee]

Quote:
I was meaning the post above that mentioned mice chewing the feathers. We have an outdoor cat though so I haven't seen any signs of small rodents in a long time.

I know most of y'all have breeder birds, but anyone have any experience with the hatchery birds and laying? So far all of my hatchery birds (other breeds) have laid as well or better than what was listed...

 

[BGMatt]

I was meaning the post above that mentioned mice chewing the feathers. We have an outdoor cat though so I haven't seen any signs of small rodents in a long time.

I know most of y'all have breeder birds, but anyone have any experience with the hatchery birds and laying? So far all of my hatchery birds (other breeds) have laid as well or better than what was listed...

The only thing hatchery birds do well is lay. They have to, since that's how the hatcheries make money. Typically they will not have as long of a egg laying life, or lifespan in general as non-hatchery stock. This is something that applies to all breeds, not just Sumatras.

 

[ramirezframing]

Quote: Yup, as BGMatt has said, hatchery stock can lay. And the quicker a hen lays her eggs the faster she lays out of them, because they are alot like a human woman. Both are born with as many eggs as they will ever lay. One reason I look at double yolkers, triple yolkers, and an egg in an egg as being cheated of a day's egg, specially if I am trying to hatch that hen's eggs. Now this does not mean that a hen will live long enough to actually lay all her eggs, most wont. One reason I don't light my birds in the fall/ winter, I let them have that natural rest time which prolongs the egg producing years of my hens.

 

[ramirezframing]

Quote:
I was meaning the post above that mentioned mice chewing the feathers. We have an outdoor cat though so I haven't seen any signs of small rodents in a long time.


I use to see mice in the one coop that I had a pet chicken in that needed a deep feed dish, they were after the feed that I had to leave out for this chicken. I would see them at night eating the feed whenever I went in that coop, but I never had any problems with them eating feathers off my birds. A few well placed mouse traps and my hens were happy the next morning if I had gotten lucky the night before.

It didn't take long for them to move off after the food was no longer there. I haven't seen one since either.

 

[ramirezframing]

My Sumatras are pretty good layers. All of mine come from Tom's line. In the spring into the fall my hens lay about 3-4 eggs each a week. Right now with it being 18 degrees out the only ones laying are my bantam Leghorns and some of my Sumatra Hens!

Are your sumatras that are laying right now new layers and are they LF or bantams?

 

[championsumatra]

I came back from the show! I won best AOSB and best sumatra in the open show with my Black hen! There were about 10,00 birds in the hole show. My other sumatras did really well winning all 1st and second places out of 23 birds in the class. The judge was Terry Britt an APA ABA licensed poultry judge, he is really well known for his sumatra's. He is a master breeder and grand master exhibitor with the sumatra's. I wanted to learn more about my birds so I asked him and this is what he had told me. He had said that I was on the right track with the way I was breeding them, and he really liked the size of my birds. I what socking because my black hen had two missing wing feathers but he really liked her quality. He told me that she would have won champion large fowl of the show but sense she was missing two of her wing feathers she could not be place champion or reserve large fowl of the show. I am really happy I did not know that she was that good!

I will get pics of my black hen. (I did not have a camera on me.)

 

[zach N houdan]

Are your sumatras that are laying right now new layers and are they LF or bantams?

Some of them are pullets that just started laying and some are hens and both my large fowl and bantams

 

[ramirezframing]

Quote: Thanks for the information. Was just curious as to what they were. I don't mind mine not laying in the winter. Since I don't light my coops, I think I have gotten 3 eggs total for the week. All of them were silkie eggs

.

 

[redandalusian]

Good job. My brothers blue pullet got reserve AOSB with his blue Sumatra hen. What did you mean by 10,000 birds? Was that just a typo.