FLORIDA!!!!!ALWAYS SUNNY SIDE UP!!!

[HennaRose]

My Australorp is pretty quiet most of the time. She's opinionated, but she's not very noisy. She's not much of a bully either, only gets a little grouchy at the babies when they try to eat near her but she's getting used to them. Maybe it depends how many of a certain breed one has? I have a small flock and only one Australorp. (One RIR, one EE, and five too young to lay yet: a leghorn, two buttercups, and two fayoumis. I had a leghorn before and she was a bully, would pull feathers and peck feet and once she pecked a toenail right off my poor Easter Egger who doesn't defend herself at ALL.)

Though I will say that I agree with you on the egg production. She was 23 weeks old before I got an egg from her in late July and she laid daily until early November and the first hint of the days getting shorter and then nothing. I haven't seen an egg from that chicken in weeks already. And then suddenly she went into a mini-molt, literally in the course of a few hours. She had all her feathers when I left for work, and wen I returned 8 hours later no tail feathers and no back neck feathers on the chicken - they were all in a pile in the coop. I doubt I'll see an egg from her for a while still!

 

[AuntNomi]

My australorp hatched March 24th and has never layed an egg yet!

 

[ShellyMMorrison]

Sometimes it takes a long long time for pullets to start to lay. It could be a stress thing, such as not enough cover behind the roost (we had this problem) or just because it's winter and the days are too short. Give her time and she should start to lay by spring. My silkie hen hatched in august and she isn't even interested in laying yet, sometimes hatching so late makes everything run behind. I once had a hen that laid one egg and never laid another, she mooched for two years before i gave her to a buddy as a pet. To this day she still doesn't lay.

 

[dolfi]

Sometimes it takes a long time for pullets to start to lay. It could be a stress thing, such as not enough cover behind the roost (we had this problem) or just because it's winter and the days are too short. Give her time and she should start to lay by spring. My silkie hen hatched in august and she isn't even interested in laying yet, sometimes hatching so late makes everything run behind. I once had a hen that laid one egg and never laid another, she mooched for two years before i gave her to a buddy as a pet. To this day she still doesn't lay.

My first chickens were from tractor Supplies. I remember like today. All the excitement and reading (I had no idea of what to do with the fuzzy butts) They were rir, 6 of them only three made it to adult.
Well these girls took two to three years to start laying.
But when they started I got a rooster and soon enough I started incubating.

This was about 5 years ago. I'm still get excited with new babies and when they start laying.

 

[SlickChick76]

Hello All,
I am in Apopka, FL. My girlfriend and I have decided we want to raise a few chickens for eggs and as pets. We would love any advice on breeds and things for the Central Florida area. I also have a thread in the Coop forum, just asking for advice on how I can fix up this coop that came with the house.

Thank you!

Hi, MacLeod22,

My first two chickens were Red Stars. Utilizing the resources the internet, particularly BYC, I researched excessively about choosing a breed that was a dependable layer of large eggs, not broody, and not "flighty". I got them as day old chicks off of daytona craigslist and at 17 and 18 weeks respectively, both girls were laying an egg a day. They have not skipped one day since. We handled them regularly and they jump into our laps to be petted and given their grapes. I've since added two leghorns, two black sex link and two barred rock pullets which I got from Bunnell Feed who ordered them for me from Ideal Poultry. Those girls are now two months old and are also very tame since we handled them from hatch as well. Time will tell about their egg laying, but just as I researched my first two, I researched by next six. I am very happy thus far with my choices- and I have four sets of different colored birds, which was something that I wanted too.

I know a lot of people in Central FL if you need any referrals for chicks- just PM me if you would like those!

Thanks,
Danielle

 

[cmom]

Quote:
My Leghorns were fine as chicks but as they got older they got more flighty and don't want to be handled. My Sex-Links are great.

 

[SlickChick76]

BTW, I am new to raising chickens,and to Florida also. I am so glad I found this site and this forum!

I live in Port Orange (one town south of Daytona in Volusia County) and my fiance and I have two dogs, three blind cats, eight chickens, one Peahen, 12 Guinea keets to help with our tick situation, and two five week old Nigerian Dwarf/Pygmy goat bottle babies.

Danielle

 

[cmom]

If you have a Rural King any where near you if they don't have chicks right now, they should be getting some in after new years. You may be able to ask them to order some breeds your interested in.

 

[cmom]

BTW, I am new to raising chickens,and to Florida also. I am so glad I found this site and this forum!

I live in Port Orange (one town south of Daytona in Volusia County) and my fiance and I have two dogs, three blind cats, eight chickens, one Peahen, 12 Guinea keets to help with our tick situation, and two five week old Nigerian Dwarf/Pygmy goat bottle babies.

Danielle

If I haven't yet, I would like to say

. Good luck with your flock and have fun...

 

[cmom]

Sometimes it takes a long long time for pullets to start to lay. It could be a stress thing, such as not enough cover behind the roost (we had this problem) or just because it's winter and the days are too short. Give her time and she should start to lay by spring. My silkie hen hatched in august and she isn't even interested in laying yet, sometimes hatching so late makes everything run behind. I once had a hen that laid one egg and never laid another, she mooched for two years before i gave her to a buddy as a pet. To this day she still doesn't lay.

I agree. Once in awhile you may have a bird that either lays few eggs or not at all, but most of the time they lay. Some breeds take longer before they start to lay. The daylight hours do affect them as well as the temperatures. It has been 10 to 20 degrees above normal for this time of year. I do have lights in all of my coops. They are night lights but seem to work OK. I used to have lights on a timer. All of my coops are plugged into one power source so I had a timer on the same line that feeds all of the coops so I could use one timer to turn on and off all of the lights at the same time. My timer eventually died so I replaced the lights with night lights that I just leave on. During the molt ( which has been going on for awhile) my birds have been laying fewer eggs. If the birds are fairly new to their coop and run they may stop laying too. Any changes can affect their laying. Excess heat and cold also affect their laying.