Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

I’m confused View attachment 3732014View attachment 3732018

Clearly.

 

[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

I have started close observation of Babs and her cycle.

But meanwhile, I can get a reasonable indication by looking on the camera at the times she goes in and out of the nest box.

Are you sure that is how it works? It seems logical but from the records over the last week, Babs has not read the memo it seems.

In the last week her probable egg laying times (when she came out of the box having been in there for about 45 mins - not just a quick look around) - are as follows, working back from today:
- 8:45am
- 6:50am
- 2:20pm
- 7:49am
- 6:54am
- 9:00am
- 7:45am

Egg cycle tax: Babs isn’t telling.

 

[BY Bob]

Sydney sure can move the material!

She's very energetic!

 

[BeastBaby]

She actually looks like she is doing well fitting in it’s tough worrying about them isn’t it?

Those first few days when I put Henny and the chicks out with the herd I was in a panic, but everyone pretty much ignored them. Except Petunia and Tippy ! What a couple of brats. Henny and Marty put the run on them, I think it was more teasing fun on their part, they would come close the hens would run them off, and they would do it all over again. Cheeky brats.

Yea it’s going pretty well with most of the hens.
Becky runs her off, but it’s tame and she’s a brat anyways so Perry will need to get used to getting out of her way. The odd peck from Fez and Whiskey when she stumbles too close to them eating… otherwise she can drink, eat, preen nearby the group.

It’s still just Albert that bites down hard and won’t let go. I’d hate to see what would happen if she cornered her for more than a minute.

And I’m also a worry wart

 

[ChicoryBlue]

[...]Aurora won't leave them alone. They are not in her coop. Leave them alone. They had it all worked out. Phyllis even moved over for Glynda to roost with Lady Featherington.

She is responsible for them, she was doing the evening head count like a good unit commander.

With a few Queenly reminders. Her closest potential “rival” at this point would be Hattie? Phyllis is another matter, she in her own category…

Queen Aurora in her military field garb, back in her campaigning days. Probably has a lot of stories she could tell!

 

[BY Bob]

I have started close observation of Babs and her cycle. But I can get a reasonable indication by looking on the camera at the times she goes in and out of the nest box.

Are you sure that is how it works? It seems logical but from the records over the last week, Babs has not read the memo it seems.

In the last week her probable egg laying times (when she came out of the box having been in there for about 45 mins - not just a quick look around) - are as follows, working back from today:
- 8:45am
- 6:50am
- 2:20pm
- 7:49am
- 6:54am
- 9:00am
- 7:45am

Egg cycle tax: Babs isn’t telling.
View attachment 3732043

So that's not real helpful.

 

[BY Bob]

Yea it’s going pretty well with most of the hens.
Becky runs her off, but it’s tame and she’s a brat anyways so Perry will need to get used to getting out of her way. The odd peck from Fez and Whiskey when she stumbles too close to them eating… otherwise she can drink, eat, preen nearby the group.

It’s still just Albert that bites down hard and won’t let go. I’d hate to see what would happen if she cornered her for more than a minute.

And I’m also a worry wart

I think we all are.

 

[RoyalChick]

So that's not real helpful.

Going forward I will confirm that each time I record, actually results in an egg.
A couple of times she has got up at 3am and gone into the box. But then she goes in again later so I am not sure the 3am visit is actually laying time.
I will confirm over the next few days.

 

[BY Bob]

She is responsible for them, she was doing the evening head count like a good unit commander.

With a few Queenly reminders. Her closest potential “rival” at this point would be Hattie? Phyllis is another matter, she in her own category…

Queen Aurora in her military field garb, back in her campaigning days. Probably has a lot of stories she could tell!
View attachment 3731967

She displaced Hattie so likely sees her as a threat but Hattie just wants Aurora to leave her alone.

She just hates Phyllis so any opportunity to peck her is taken.

 

[BeastBaby]

They are usually the best ones also

These days Butterscotch is my handful one, not sure why she is so determined to find a new nesting location, she better not be going broody! She has been up in the gap between the beams in the barn, I enclosed the gaps in the Summer House to keep raccoons out didn’t figure I would need to keep chooks on the inside out of the gap it creates!
View attachment 3732005

And she has also been checking out the gap in the one over the Hen House A wall. She can’t get up into the loft but if she became stuck or laid a ton of eggs up there it would be hard to get to them.

Nice door!
And it’s great you played rooster and helped to show her other nests.