Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Well she sure looked right at home there - I gave a couple of my hens a wash, trim and style last summer

I keep the feathers trimmed short around the butts of my girls with poopy butts, anyways I have found that once they start laying eggs they start getting poopy butts.

In fact today is trim the butts day….

I think you are a frustrated stylist. What did your doll's hair look like?

 

[BY Bob]

First off, anyone actually wanting snow is crazy. Secondly, here take it, you can have the roughly 8 inches that is in my yard.

Send it here!

 

[BY Bob]

It kills me to say it, but I have found 1 positive to the weather conditions this past week. After the first 2 days of the snow, my leghorns have shut down production completely. Actually I only have 1 hen laying and that is 1 of the rocks. Temps should rise back up to the 40s to almost 50 starting Tuesday so things will start melting. I am hoping though that I can get at least one more week of no eggs from the leghorns. True to their genetics they have been phenomenal layers, too good truth be told. I have each girl averaging 8 to 9 eggs before skipping a day. Frankly that is too much on their little bodies. I may hate the snow, they may hate the snow, but girls you need to take a break. I will not count ever on them going broody to give their bodies a break so I guess I need to shut up complaining about snow. For now that is.

Poor leghorns.

 

[BY Bob]

Oh my Azurs are like that I was hoping they would also stop, but today I got an amazing 21 eggs - I am awash in eggs. But I sure wish those 3 Azurs would slow up- it’s that leghorn in them for sure

Poor leghorn children

 

[BY Bob]

Babs is the same. She goes weeks without a break.

Do you know how many hours her cycle is, 25, 26, 27 hours?

 

[RoyalChick]

Do you know how many hours her cycle is, 25, 26, 27 hours?

Hmmmm. No. I need to observe more closely.
What would that tell me?

 

[BY Bob]

I really had hoped the Azurs would slow up with the cold, I guess it was warm for so long and now the days are getting longer. I can only hope that they slow down now that they are coming up to being a yr old.

Meanwhile I will keep an eye on them, have to say though they are very business like with their egg laying. They will carry on squawking up a storm prior to laying their eggs, then they hop in pop out an egg leave the nest and go about their business! There is no egg song afterwards for them - how weird is that?

And this morning I was late getting to the barn (6:40) and when I opened the door to Hen House B there was an egg on the floor! And when I went to check behind the door there was another egg! The door had passed over top of it thankfully they were blue so likely the Azurs. AND I found another egg up on the straw stack that was stone cold so it had to have been there over night - that make ls 23 eggs yesterday gosh what’s going on there?!

My leghorns never sang the egg song. It was very business like with them. Pop an egg out and on your way.

 

[BY Bob]

Early to Bed, Early to Rise.....

Phyllis as of 4:30 PM tonight.

Of course this is just to get her nap in so she can party late.

 

[BY Bob]

Hmmmm. No. I need to observe more closely.
What would that tell me?

That tells you how long she will go before she takes a break.

For example:

Imagine Daylight is 10 hours. It runs from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM

Say Phyllis lays on a 27 hour cycle. She will lay the following times if she starts at 8:00 on the first day (which we will call Monday).

Mon 8:00 AM
Tue 11:00 AM. (27 hours later)
Wed 2:00 PM
Thu 5:00 PM

There will be no egg on Friday as it would come out after dark. So Phyllis will skip Friday and start again around daylight on Saturday. On a 27 hour cycle you would average 6 eggs in 7 days.

Phyllis actually a 3 to 5 egg a week hen. Polish lay pretty well in my experience. She's somewhere over 30 hours in her cycle. As the days get longer in the summer you get more consecutive days of laying.

My Daisy, the greatest hen ever, had something less than a 25 hour laying cycle. She only skipped 5 days her first full calendar year of laying.

A Daisy mug for Monday

 

[RoyalChick]

That tells you how long she will go before she takes a break.

For example:

Imagine Daylight is 10 hours. It runs from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM

Say Phyllis lays on a 27 hour cycle. She will lay the following times if she starts at 8:00 on the first day (which we will call Monday).

Mon 8:00 AM
Tue 11:00 AM. (27 hours later)
Wed 2:00 PM
Thu 5:00 PM

There will be no egg on Friday as it would come out after dark. So Phyllis will skip Friday and start again around daylight on Saturday. On a 27 hour cycle you would average 6 eggs in 7 days.

Phyllis actually a 3 to 5 egg a week hen. Polish lay pretty well in my experience. She's somewhere over 30 hours in her cycle. As the days get longer in the summer you get more consecutive days of laying.

My Daisy, the greatest hen ever, had something less than a 25 hour laying cycle. She only skipped 5 days her first full calendar year of laying.

A Daisy mug for Monday
View attachment 3731336

Got it. Fabulous Daisy mug.
I am not sure how to factor Babs's 3am laying habit into the math. But I will pay attention to laying times starting tomorrow and see what I can work out.