Comb concerns

[jmacc2044]

Hello!

First winter with my little flock.. first of all, they’re laying incredibly well for how cold and dark is has been here in MI. 12 hens/1 rooster and I’m getting about 8-9 eggs per day. 3 light brahamas, 3 Rhode Island reds, 2 olive eggers, and 4 isa browns. I’m pleased with the 8-9 eggs per day; does that seem normal for December/January in MI? Above average?

Also, some of my girls have some scabbing around their combs and eyes. Doesn’t seem to be any other concerns.. they’re acting totally normal, still laying eggs well, active, eating/drinking, bright eyes, etc. I was trying to get some Vaseline on the girls with taller combs to help protect from frostbite and noticed it. I just want to catch it before it becomes and issue if there is one. The areas don’t seem to cause them any pain either.

Let me know what you pros think

Thanks

JM

 

[CanadaEh]

First winter with my little flock.. first of all, they’re laying incredibly well for how cold and dark is has been here in MI. 12 hens/1 rooster and I’m getting about 8-9 eggs per day. 3 light brahamas, 3 Rhode Island reds, 2 olive eggers, and 4 isa browns. I’m pleased with the 8-9 eggs per day; does that seem normal for December/January in MI? Above average?

normal for young birds in their first winter. It will be quite miserable years after that if you choose not to renew (they will molt and take breaks)

Also, some of my girls have some scabbing around their combs and eyes. Doesn’t seem to be any other concerns.. they’re acting totally normal, still laying eggs well, active, eating/drinking, bright eyes, etc. I was trying to get some Vaseline on the girls with taller combs to help protect from frostbite and noticed it. I just want to catch it before it becomes and issue if there is one. The areas don’t seem to cause them any pain either.

it would be unusual place to get frost bite around an eye, I would say it is from pecking. If you did not see it before - they spend more time in the coop with shorter or colder days and less entertainment.

 

[jmacc2044]

normal for young birds in their first winter. It will be quite miserable years after that if you choose not to renew (they will molt and take breaks)

it would be unusual place to get frost bite around an eye, I would say it is from pecking. If you did not see it before - they spend more time in the coop with shorter or colder days and less entertainment.

Thank you for your response. Can you explain a little more what you mean by “quite miserable years if you choose not to renew” ? You’re saying that they’ll lay much less eggs over winter after the first year? Do you mean renew my flock with new hens each year?

Thanks again

 

[CanadaEh]

You’re saying that they’ll lay much less eggs over winter after the first year?

yes. fall and beginning of winter. as days get longer they pick up despite it being coldest time of the year. How long they break for depend on the breed, age, feeding, and individual bird's genetics and condition. The break will be longer every year.

Do you mean renew my flock with new hens each year?

That is the conclusion I came to after having only half or less of the eggs this fall. You either renew them all, or have mixed generations flock and be ok with half of eggs, or get ready to have very few eggs.

 

[Mrs. K]

Yes, young pullets tend (although not always) to lay through the dark days of winter. Then the second year, they will molt, and take a break. And it is not uncommon not to get any eggs for November/December +/- both ways.

I just got my first eggs this week. Ways to get around this, is to freeze eggs in the summer when you have a lot, or store them in lime. Then use your fresh for eating, and the stored eggs for baking, and most of the time I can get through without the dreaded buying of store eggs for a chicken lady.

And chickens really do need to be added to each year, but for most of us, that also means that they have to be culled. This keeps a happy, active, healthy flock, and the young lay through winter. Everyone loves to get chicks, letting old ones go can be tougher. But as most of us, the coop is the defining point. It is the size it is...

As for you original question. It could be a little frost bite? Go look at your ventilation. It is in kind of a funny spot. Measure how much ventilation you have. Keeping your coop dry helps with this.

Mrs K

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, around the eyes is a strange place for frostbite. I have not dealt with it myself but you might want to look up fowl pox and see if that is what you are seeing.

Can you explain a little more what you mean by “quite miserable years if you choose not to renew” ?

An original typical cycle for hens is that they lay eggs and raise chicks in the spring and summer. In the fall when finding food is not as easy and the weather is rougher that stop laying and use the nutrition from what they can find to eat to molt and replace feathers that have worn out. When the weather gets better in the spring they start the cycle of laying eggs and raising chicks again.

But we've domesticated them. Through selective breeding we've somewhat altered that cycle. They lay a lot more eggs in a year, most hens never going broody. We constantly feed them so they never go short on food. They are housed much more comfortably than they would be if they were still sleeping in trees. Some pullets (not all but some) skip the molt their first year and continue laying all winter. Some of that depends on when they were hatched. Practically every one will molt their second fall whether they skip the molt the first year or not so you can expect a huge drop in egg laying their second fall/winter.

It's more complicated than this. Some hens start the molt earlier than others. Some finish their molt before less than two months, some can take five months to finish the molt. Some hens wait until the longer days of the spring weathers show up before they start laying, some start laying as soon as the molt is finished, even even if it is still early winter. One year I had a hen that molted in late summer as she was raising her baby chick. She had finished her molt before the rest of the flock had even started their molt. She continued to lay all through that winter and all summer. Some people seem to think that every hen on the planet will react the same way but what I see is that about anything can happen.

What I try to do is to raise a few replacement pullets every year. Generally at least some of the pullets will skip the molt and lay throughout their year so I at least get some eggs. One year that did not work, I did not get any eggs for over two months.

What all this means is that if you don't have any new pullets you can expect to go a spell in the fall/winter without any eggs.