Tired old Rooster
Songster
(Note, location Argentina.)
I have three Plymouth rock pullets, who apparently were hatched in the first week of December. Thus making them close to five and a half months old. Where I live has moderate winters by the standards of you folks up north, but it is still coming into winter, so I resign myself to having little chance of seeing an egg until at least October, when the last frost day happens. To be more precise on the exact day, I will need to find out when our annual motorcycle rally is scheduled, because for some reason, the last frost day is always on the Saturday night of that weekend.
Now the concern I wish to ask advice on, is the pullets themselves. They have grown nicely, have bulky bodies with great condition feathers. But zero sign of a proper comb or wattles. They seem to be no different than when I got them in appearance in that regard. Are they just taking longer to mature on a hormonal level because we are heading into winter? or is there likely a problem?
Food: They get their scratch available freely at all times, I give them some crushed corn that is fermented a few times a week. As a treat, about once a week they get some left over boiled rice and once a week, I give them a bowl of ground beef. Outside of that, they free range for most of the day.
I have three Plymouth rock pullets, who apparently were hatched in the first week of December. Thus making them close to five and a half months old. Where I live has moderate winters by the standards of you folks up north, but it is still coming into winter, so I resign myself to having little chance of seeing an egg until at least October, when the last frost day happens. To be more precise on the exact day, I will need to find out when our annual motorcycle rally is scheduled, because for some reason, the last frost day is always on the Saturday night of that weekend.
Now the concern I wish to ask advice on, is the pullets themselves. They have grown nicely, have bulky bodies with great condition feathers. But zero sign of a proper comb or wattles. They seem to be no different than when I got them in appearance in that regard. Are they just taking longer to mature on a hormonal level because we are heading into winter? or is there likely a problem?
Food: They get their scratch available freely at all times, I give them some crushed corn that is fermented a few times a week. As a treat, about once a week they get some left over boiled rice and once a week, I give them a bowl of ground beef. Outside of that, they free range for most of the day.