check your facts, please

[possumqueen]

I am compelled to make an observation.

I received my eagerly awaited BYC calendar yesterday -- MAN that was fast! But I was bitterly disappointed to find a serious factual error in it that cries out for correction.

For pure beauty, this is the best thing I've ever seen. Nothing beats up-close-and-personal chicken portraiture for class and style, and the photos in the calendar are awesome. I enjoyed paging through the whole thing last night.

But then I got to December. Yes, that's a Missouri snow fowl, and a nice one, too. karanleaf must have a room full of ribbons and a flock of prize winners there. But -- a pullet???? I think not!

Look at the well developed, bright red comb, the classic broody stink-eye, and the egg lying right there beside her! Clearly this is a mature laying hen, sitting on a clutch to boot!

Granted we don't see too many of these birds here in the South for obvious reasons, but BYC should know by now that I am never wrong. So 'fess up, y'all. Admit that you've got egg on your face here.

 

[froggie71]

Well from what I've learned a pullet is less than a year old.
2. pullet - young hen usually less than a year old
biddy, hen - adult female chicken

A young pullet will lay an egg at 5 -7 months so..... If this girl (and I didn't see the pic) is less than a year, then it is correct to say she is a pullet.

 

[Wanda]

not familiar with this particular breed or at what point it starts laying but I have heard a pullet is a pullet til it is a year old, then it is called a hen. If that is true, a pullet can be laying for a number of months before it is officially a hen.

Wanda

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

I too have not seen the picture in question but we had three broodies this fall that all set and hatched chicks and they were all under a year which made them pullets.

 

[flakey chick]

My broodiest girl had only been laying for 1 month when she first went broody- well under 1 year = still a pullet, BUT
now I really really really want a BYC calendar. I love your description

 

[possumqueen]

Quote:
I stand corrected. But I'm still never wrong. mistaken, occasionally. . . . .

 

[gsim]

So, the only mistake you ever made was when you thought you were wrong and turned out you were right again.

 

[possumqueen]

Quote:
Look here now! Don't laugh at me like that! YOU look at that picture and see if YOU would see a pullet or a setting HEN!

 

[gsim]

Ha-ha-ha! Gotcha! I couldn't pass that up. I have not seen the pictures.

I do have 24 pullets of 6 months age, 4 breeds, and half of them are so fat they look like sumo wrestlers. (they run like sumo wrestlers too, kind of a high-speed waddle) No way I could tell a hen (technically over 1 year old) from one of my fatsos that are only 6 months old. Some of mine do lay two eggs a day and two of them lay double-yolkers that look like turkey eggs. My six Black Australorpes look like black Jersey Giants, and 4 of my 6 Barred Rocks do too, along with two RIR. Mine did start laying a bit young though, at 4 months. It may be that they are so big because they get tons of live greens and always have from day 1. Everyone who has seen them even at 4 months old thinks they are big for their age. So really, based on my admittedly very limited experience, I could not say from a picture what age a chicken is.