don't know much about history (or chickens)

[sewingca]

I have a nice mix of Wyndottes and don't-know-who-the-daddy. I noticed this evening how bright red their ear lobes are. All the youngsters are about 5 months old. Some look like full grown chickens. Are they older than I was told? Are they about to begin laying? I have one full grown rooster and a full grown hen. There are 8 juveniles of undetermined sex. Help, please.

 

[farmin'chick]

Well! Since your babies are a mix of known and unknown parentage, if I understood you right -- you can expect your girls to lay between 16 and 24 weeks! Golden Comets, some production reds, and other super egg layers often start to lay at 16 weeks (4 months). Regular rhodies, barred rocks, etc. often start to lay at 20 weeks. EE's will often wait until 26 weeks. If their combs are reddening up, and they look kind of far away musey, lost in thought, and spend inordinate amounts of time sitting around, getting up, scootching around, sitting back down, some even put grass and stuff on their backs -- they're experimenting with what egg laying will be like. Look for eggs within a couple of weeks. The behaviors are more of a key for me than comb and wattle redness.

Edited for spelling...

 

[sewingca]

Thanks, farmin'chick, I haven't seen any behavior as you noted - I read up on the bright red ear lobes and the info was that when they paled, the birds were going into molting or non-egg laying mode. So, I thought perhaps the opposite was true for beginner layers. In any case, I'm looking forward to egg production pretty soon! Stay warm.