Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

This could well be true. The supposed '14 hours of daylight to lay' is not true for me, as we haven't had 14 hours of daylight for quite a while now (we are presently at 9.5 hours of daylight per day) and some of my girls are still laying, despite moulting. (And, yes, I know many say that they don't stop laying when molting..but I have 2 hens that molted hard and stopped laying, that have now 'come back online' and are laying 2 eggs a week....definite slow-down from their 4 eggs a week - but they are back to laying. My experience is they will keep laying like this except for a real deep cold snap, then they will stop (they are EE & and ISA, only my heavy Brahma and orps lay during a cold snap)

Also, young ones that didn't start laying in the fall for me did start laying in mid-to-late January, when the amount of daylight was similar to now...but on the increasing end. I've only had 'later hatch' ones once (plus this year...we will see what they do...a couple of the co-broody raised girls are really starting to pink up - @20 weeks now) so we will see when the first egg is.)

I do find that in the spring, the younger they are, the quicker they get their 'spring flush' lay on, usually early Feb. Older ones start increasing laying mid-to late Feb, and my 4+ year olds in March start increasing (or start again) laying.

This makes me think that I need to start keeping as detailed a record as possible. Since I have so many birds, I can't always tell who is laying what, but I can keep track of exactly how many eggs are laid a day. (I do count them daily from each group to mentally note the changes...but I presently only record how many doz. eggs are sold, and whether from the cooler or to specific people at work. Noting how many are chicken eggs & how many are duck eggs.)

I suspect that there will be some variation based on local clime and total daylight hours. Someone now living nearby used to live in Virginia, and she was absolutely shocked at how dramatically the laying dropped in the fall - she said previously, in VA, it was just a slow taper, and they didn't stop laying in the winter. Here, most of mine that are 2.5 or older stop for at least part of the winter....I do not know what breeds she had, but they were the same breeds as she got here, she said.

I suspect that the trigger is the shortening and lengthening of the daylight hrs. This is certainly true with my horses developing a winter hair coat. They will start to shed their winter hair around the last week of January! and by April they will generally have shed all their winter hair. Then in the first week of August they will start to shed out their summer hair and get their winter hair coat. By End of Oct they will have their full winter hair coat.

I noted that the chickens seemed to follow with the eggs, they started to slow down around mid August and now I am only getting about 2 eggs a day. I will be interested to see what happens around the end of January / beginning of February with eggs!

 

[Ponypoor]

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving. I'm coming back to life slowly, I ended up with type b flu thanks to my wonderful brother. While I was off to myself dying so to speak my dad was in charge of collecting eggs and storing them. I told him after Brenda came and got her eggs Monday morning we were not selling anymore this week. Yeah, that went in one ear and out the other. I had held 1 dozen back for mom, and by Wednesday afternoon she had another dozen to use for baking. What does dad do, he sells both dozen to his brother and takes them to him. Dad is proud of himself, mom is ticked that she is forced to go buy eggs for baking and several stores are sold out. When she found them she had to pay $5 a dozen. She did end up making a few pumpkin rolls, but the New York style cheesecakes were not made. We have all the stuff for them, and now fresh eggs so maybe me and mom will make one or two this week just for the heck of it.

Oh I am soooo sorry to hear you were sick - I remember there back a bit you were or was is Rosie were sick. I am doomed here, my boss has been sick and he keeps sending me texts to 'can you drop by so I can review these documents'... and of course he is hacking up a lung. The Envirnmental Inspector and I were chatting today and he says he thinks he is getting sick, and I now have that pre-sickness headache neckache happening - bad bad boss! Bad Bad Kelly for not wearing a mask when over there!

Oh I sure hope your feeling lots better the horses and chooks must miss you!

I laughed at your dad selling the eggs hahahaha too funny! Maybe your mum will make you the cheesecake as a treat for you since your not well

 

[Marie2020]

Oh I am soooo sorry to hear you were sick - I remember there back a bit you were or was is Rosie were sick. I am doomed here, my boss has been sick and he keeps sending me texts to 'can you drop by so I can review these documents'... and of course he is hacking up a lung. The Envirnmental Inspector and I were chatting today and he says he thinks he is getting sick, and I now have that pre-sickness headache neckache happening - bad bad boss! Bad Bad Kelly for not wearing a mask when over there!

Oh I sure hope your feeling lots better the horses and chooks must miss you!

I laughed at your dad selling the eggs hahahaha too funny! Maybe your mum will make you the cheesecake as a treat for you since your not well

You need a good rest before working. Get that mask on and take a little honey

 

[featherhead007]

My emotional support rooster is doing well, ready to help out any of you who need him.

 

[Ponypoor]

You need a good rest before working. Get that mask on and take a little honey

I had a lovely cuppa honey and lemon tea

Feeling ok but now it’s snowing!

 

[Ponypoor]

My emotional support rooster is doing well, ready to help out any of you who need him.

I would love to invite him to camp but alas no critters allowed darn it!

 

[Ponypoor]

Sleepy Head

Getting a good chuckle from watching Mr P snoozing and his head bobbing. And yes there are two snuggled up there him and Curly

Also did my headcount and there are 11 with apparently the 2 grey ladies roosting together in a nest box - so mum says…

 

[Ponypoor]

Grumble grumble grumble….

What do you do when the internet sucks at camp? You pull out all you past IT knowledge skill and training and make it better!

When I went to town yesterday I purchased a NetGear wifi extender, then I had to fiddle around setting it up

Now I am able to check out my chickies on the barn cams, and check out BYC without cursing every 10 seconds!

Awwww look Mr P has his head tucked up - sort of….

 

[featherhead007]

WOW people, you should see my rooster Jaffar dance when I put on that old Macarena song . My old rooster still has energy!!!

 

[featherhead007]

I would love to invite him to camp but alas no critters allowed darn it!

Critter? He’s got more brains than some supervisors!