Gecko2T
Chirping
What is POL??Now I have a question for those of you that incubate birds.
Do you find that the birds you incubate/hatch at this time of the year take as long to start/reach point of lay as birds you incubate/hatch in march/april/may (of the same breed)?
I just ask as a some of the breeds that I have now were hatched in January and February of 2018. They hit POL (only some, not all) in December/January. The two different breeders I've gotten birds from kept their own stock from later hatches (both stated April/May) and both have stated that their's hit POL at the same time as mine... The one breeder went on to state that he's noticed this with most of the breeds he has, but not all. The other breeder didn't answer to that one yet.
I have 2 Bielefelder pullets that were hatched in June - don't look any where near ready to start laying. My other Bielefelders were hatched in March and now all 4 appear to be laying. Though one started about 3 weeks before the other 3.
Our blue Australorps were hatched in May (stock from Privett Hatchery) and as of today - I still have only 1 in the pen of 5 and about 3 (& could be only 2) in the pen of 6 that have started laying. The good thing is that I'm incubating the eggs from the earliest layers right now (so hopefully any pullets will also lay earlier).
It just makes me curious. The one breeder stated that he'd recommend I wait to do the next hatch until March. I'll have better quality birds, with shorter feeding times, getting to POL sooner...