Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

I could have said good lasagna!

I will need a tax photo now.

 

[featherhead007]

Finally! She’s up on her perch. Now who else am I going to have join us inside tonight?

 

[featherhead007]

I will need a tax photo now.

Arizona finally on her perch Tax:
I should have got a parrot !!

 

[MaryJanet]

Why do they have to be like that? It makes me so sad.

I don't think we can place human morality on chicken shoulders.

Instead, the humans have to learn about chicken morality...

... She says while recalling how nice it was to lift rambunctious Peggy away from the dear old girls at roosting time last night.

It's much easier to know it than to do it.

 

[MaryJanet]

Same with human behavior about “the new employee” !

And in many cases, the old employee who is perceived as an obstacle to those wishing for promotion.

 

[featherhead007]

And in many cases, the old employee who is perceived as an obstacle to those wishing for promotion.

The whole situation, gives me a headache!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

It's a ways, and the room closest in that direction hasn't been gutted/redone (new to us house), so it is 2 pron outlets/no ground. I'm not comfortable plugging into that with an extension cord going outside. There was lots of wonky wiring in this house..to the point that our electrician removed some wiring immediately...said it would keep him up at night if he left it, so bad/hazzardous. so we have a couple rooms with no electricity right now ourselves.

Yes, do not use any non-grounded thing outside when messing with electricity. We seem to be doing okay with 150 feet of very heavy 12/3 gauge outdoor extension cords, a 100' and 50' joined in a plastic/rubber outdoor water-tight join lock, going out from a GFI outlet. I ran it up along tree branches and one of the aviary frames to stay overhead and not get cut or run over on the ground. It is running one heated water bowl, a heating pad, and a Cozy Coop (Cozy Coop is now being used for the redworms who need it more). Plus the little LED lights in each cord end (I really like that, you can see that it's on).

 

[bgmathteach]

Lovely colours! Love those really dark ones. Is this one day's haul for eggs? If so you must be awash in eggs! I am averaging about 3/day right now some days 5, some 2.... the odd day I get 8! But even at those small lots I am awash with eggs Who knew chickens laid so many eggs - this time last year I never gave it a thought!

Ummm, nope, not even close to one day's haul!

I have a few more chickens than you...I'm getting between 28 - 34 chicken eggs per day atm, and was getting 3 duck eggs most days, but just had another of my August hatch start, so now getting 3 or 4 duck eggs per day. I presently have 91 birds: 9 ducks, 1 of which is a drake, 2 of the hens will be 5 in April,(no longer lay in the winter) 1 hen will be 2 in June, and the rest were July (2 - both laying now) or august(3 - 1 of which just started laying Sat.) hatches. And I have 82 chickens, 9 of which are Roos, and the girls range in age from 5 & 1/2 months up to almost 5 yrs. old. My molters (4) and my older (3 yrs. and up) girls aren't laying now, and a couple of the heavier breed newbies aren't laying yet. I expect that by the end of Feb, I will be getting 50+ chicken eggs per day. I sell some - I was just barely keeping up with demand late fall.early winter...but the surplus that I will have this spring will either go into the incubator (I am planning on breeding my own instead of buying hatchery, plus I am starting developing my own meat breed - will be breeding 2nd and 3rd gens this year). Extra beyond that goes 1 of 2 places: a colleague at work is really struggling financially ( she is part-time, no benefits!), so I give her 1-2 doz. per week, and I donate the others to my church's food pantry. (Well, I give some to my elderly neighbors year round, too...and sometimes family, etc...you know how that goes.)

 

[bgmathteach]

@BY Bob any idea if roosters molt? I believe they don’t, just wanted a second opinion.

I"m probably going to owe SHRA tax, but, here goes:

Yes, Roosters absolutely DO molt, just like the hens do. They all need to replace their worn feathers with nice new ones for protection and warmth. Youngsters don't molt their first fall because they have relatively new feathers (they go through a few molts as they grow), so their first adult molt (hens and roos) is usually at around 18 mos. of age; it is annual there-after. Though there are other molts, too. Some will have a 'soft' or partial molt after being broody (hens only), some will also have a soft molt late spring/early summer after the spring 'flush' or egg laying/mating winds down a bit ( both hens & roos). Also, sometimes in the fall either sex may have a partial or soft molt...especially if they did a soft molt in early summer. Then there are the really slow molters that take 3-4 months to molt, and you wouldn't even realize they are molting except for finding the telltale wing feather periodically (usually 1 at a time each wing for those really slow molters.). Last, but not least, if they are really stressed, or if for some reason they are starved, it can cause a molt (both sexes)

Probably more than you needed/wanted to know......

 

[bgmathteach]

But in all my years of having chickens, my roosters never seemed to molt.

You probably have a slow molting rooster. In late fall, check his wings. See if he has 1 primary or secondary feather that is unusually short. If you check every 1-2 weeks, you should be able to tell. I have had a couple of very slow molting hens (they never looked like a feather was out of place!) This article has some great pictures/diagrams of fast and slow molting wing feather replacement for reference:
https://www.betterhensandgardens.com/how-how-fast-chickens-molt/

By the way, my roosters never seem to have super fast molts like some of my hens. Not sure if I am just an exception, or if they tend to molt more slowly so that they can always look out & protect the hens? (i.e. never naked & afraid)