Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

Is this a case of be careful what you ask for?

I don’t ask anything from Jaffar, he does as he pleases. He’s the “cock of the walk” around here. I’m just the servant.

 

[bgmathteach]

About the influence of winter on pullets beginning to lay, I recently came upon this post and was interested as I had not read something like this before
"The actual length of daylight isn't that important, whether the days are getting longer or shorter is the really important part"
The source of the information isn't mentioned and I don't know the poster's degree of expertise, but it's different from what is usually said that more or less under a certain number of hours of day light a hen will not begin to lay.

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.

 

[bgmathteach]

I have two tribes unfortunately, because the four chicks hatched by Chipie have never been integrated by the original flock.

Sorry @ManueB I meant to add this, too and posted without it.

How are the new roost set ups working out? They did work the first few nights, then didn't (I think Gaston went to roost too late?) Are they back to a good routine that is working?

 

[micstrachan]

I thought she had pretty red comb and wattles already a month ago - if anything they are a bit paler now.
I hope she is OK.

View attachment 3333379View attachment 3333380

She really is beautiful!

 

[micstrachan]

Caturday! View attachment 3333425

OMG!!!

 

[rural mouse]

Good to know I really wasn’t sure if the timing would cause them to lay later then “scheduled”. I am now making plans to get them in asap! I think everyone that chimed in to help me is absolutely right they do take time to get used to new things.

I do have spot picked out where I think they will go. I have few options circulating in my head on what I want to use though. Which is why the installation delay has occurred. A modified egg crate or a modified plastic tub seem like solid options that are easily cleaned. I just need to pick already!!

Do 2 of each and see if they have a preference when they do start laying

 

[micstrachan]

My girls are quite red and some are squatting, I wonder how long before they lay an egg?.

Me thinks soon!

 

[featherhead007]

OMG!!!

 

[featherhead007]

View attachment 3333600

Or would you prefer chickens in choppers?

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

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.