Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
Really? My D'uccle went "broody" on 2 golf balls and she was NOT going to be moved off them, so I got her 4 large fowl eggs. She hatched 3 chicks (which were taller than her at 6 weeks

)

My silkie (which may or may not be considered a "real" chicken on this thread

) went broody on NOTHING. She made a nest in the corner of the coop, in the sand. I moved her every day for a week and every day she was back there, so I slipped 4 mutt eggs (of my own this time) under her. I have no idea what she hatched and only one survived the D'uccles "helping" mother them....but she didn't even have an egg to sit on but was broody...turns out she is a good momma too...who knew a dustmop could protect her baby from 3 roos?
So again, I say "really?", cuz that hasn't been my experience. As I understood it, broodiness is hormonal and has nothing to do with how many eggs the hen has around. A broody hen will steal eggs from another's nest (if the boxes are of the open style) or get off her own nest so the other hens can lay their eggs in her nest and hatch them as her own, no problem.

Perhaps you are thinking of ducks? It is a true statement with regard to some species of ducks (not all) and "a dozen" isn't an absolute...ducks decide based on the available food in the area.

who knew a dustmop could protect her baby from 3 roos

Interesting comment. How many people have problems with mature roosters killing chicks? I never have. Notice I'm asking about mature roosters, not chicks.

I don't have many problems with mature hens trying to kill chicks either, but I have seen Mama teach a few hens to leave her babies alone. I've never seen any of those problems with mature roosters. I have seen the dominate rooster help take care of the chicks. One specific example, which I have seen several times, is if some chicks get stuck on the opposite side of a fence from Mama, the rooster sometimes comes over and watches over the chicks until Mama can figure out where the gate is.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had a hen die last summer while on the nest laying an egg when the outside temperature was around 110* F. That is hot for here. She died just as the egg was coming out. She had not been acting quite right for a few days so I think she was "weak", and I'm not convinced the weakness was totally due to the heat. She died during the day while on the nest, not at night on the roosts. I've got good ventilation and the sun is not heating up the coop at night while they are on the roosts. In the summer it is normally 30 degrees or more cooler while they are on the roosts than during the day during those heat spells. They do spread out on the roosts more when it is hot.

To combat the heat, I make sure they can get to shade, plus I put out a couple of extra bowls of water in the shade. I use the white dog bowls so they don't absorb heat like black would. Some wade in them, some don't. But they always have plenty of water to drink.

 

[featherz]

Had four broodies last year and not one of them was sitting on any eggs at all, since I remove them all each day. I finally gave them each a few eggs but they stayed plopped on nothing at all for quite some time.

Fwiw, I left mama in the coop with all the other chickens and the rooster, and even when free ranging the Roos never bothered the chicks. Neither did my two barn cats, and that kinda surprised me.

 

[Lollipop]

Quote:
Really? My D'uccle went "broody" on 2 golf balls and she was NOT going to be moved off them, so I got her 4 large fowl eggs. She hatched 3 chicks (which were taller than her at 6 weeks

)

My silkie (which may or may not be considered a "real" chicken on this thread

) went broody on NOTHING. She made a nest in the corner of the coop, in the sand. I moved her every day for a week and every day she was back there, so I slipped 4 mutt eggs (of my own this time) under her. I have no idea what she hatched and only one survived the D'uccles "helping" mother them....but she didn't even have an egg to sit on but was broody...turns out she is a good momma too...who knew a dustmop could protect her baby from 3 roos?
So again, I say "really?", cuz that hasn't been my experience. As I understood it, broodiness is hormonal and has nothing to do with how many eggs the hen has around. A broody hen will steal eggs from another's nest (if the boxes are of the open style) or get off her own nest so the other hens can lay their eggs in her nest and hatch them as her own, no problem.

Perhaps you are thinking of ducks? It is a true statement with regard to some species of ducks (not all) and "a dozen" isn't an absolute...ducks decide based on the available food in the area.

who knew a dustmop could protect her baby from 3 roos

Interesting comment. How many people have problems with mature roosters killing chicks? I never have. Notice I'm asking about mature roosters, not chicks.

I don't have many problems with mature hens trying to kill chicks either, but I have seen Mama teach a few hens to leave her babies alone. I've never seen any of those problems with mature roosters. I have seen the dominate rooster help take care of the chicks. One specific example, which I have seen several times, is if some chicks get stuck on the opposite side of a fence from Mama, the rooster sometimes comes over and watches over the chicks until Mama can figure out where the gate is.

Pretty much the same here. The 3 roos musta been cockerals. The mature hen statement is, at least in my experience, an individual thing, but I have had lots of mature hens that were rough on strange chicks. Guess they never come close to killing one, but they sure don`t like to have them around. A mama that won`t, or can`t protect her chicks will never get another chance on my yard. Mature cocks are almost always good with chicks. Young fowl, pullets and cockerals, are deadly to them........Pop

 

[BWKatz]

Ok OT's... new question. I hear people saying they gather eggs in morning and then let their hens out. Mine lay all day long, Is their some trick to getting them to lay in the morning?

 

[Fred's Hens]

No trick. However, most hens do lay by noon, with the stragglers laying later.

If a hen doesn't "learn" to lay in the box, she's gonna get probation and not be allowed outside. If she does it again, she'd be culled. I've not had such a failure in many, many years. It all starts at POL in my estimation. They need to learn about the boxes and practice laying in their boxes during those first few weeks of laying. My point of lay pullets are not allowed to free range until I am confident. I don't do easter egg hunts.

 

[Sooner]

The weather tells me when I collect my eggs.

Very hot- around noon, 4pm & 8pm
freezing- as often as I can get out there.
Normal- evenings.

I have never been able to make my chickens lay when I want.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I gather at the end of the day, to get the eggs laid during the day. I also gather when I'm out there doing something else, for the eggs laid earlier in the day. The times when I gather most frequently are in really hot weather and really cold weather. Hot temperatures degrade eggs faster and extreme cold freezes them faster. During moderate weather, I'm lazier about it.

 

[jvls1942]

what happened to stating how many years you have been raising chickens ? personnally,, grandma's time does not count here.. my dad was a sheet metal fabricator, does not mean that I am one.. although I helped him on many jobs..

I see many statements going on here that I just know are being made by newbies without experience.. wrong statements are harmful and they take a long time to straighten out...

/////////jiminwisc//////// since 1966

 

[bobbi-j]

I let mine out later in the morning, around 10ish, to get the majority of the eggs picked. Once I open the coop and run, I check every few hours because I have a barn cat who recognizes the egg song and will eat the eggs if I don't get them in time. At least that's what she did when they were free ranging all day during the summer and I had one laying in the barn. The past few days she's been hanging around the coop, so I'm guessing she knows there's eggs in there. And no, I'm not getting rid of the cat. She's good rodent control. I rarely have to feed her cat food and she's fat and sassy. If she's getting eggs it's my fault for making them accessible to her. She can have an egg or two to supplement her diet of mice and rats.