New 19 week old pullets - signs of stress/not using roosts?

[Love-my-girls]

Pictures 1st per @Texas Kiki request. I put 2-3" of fresh pine mulch on the floor and then a bale of straw that we let the ladies spread about. The 1st pic show shows mulch going in and their 2 roost boards (natural wood at the back), the 3rd last pic shows their ramp on left.

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[Love-my-girls]

Fabulous coop. You are obviously a very good chicken parent. Your girls should thrive and produce lots of eggs under these favorable conditions!

 

[Ted Brown]

That coop is lovely! My only question is do they feel safe and snuggly with all the windows? Are their roost bars in a quiet dark corner? While we're at it, smooth 2 x 3's or 2 x 4's actually make the best roost bars, chickens don't actually love round bars, and prefer to have their feet flat and their bodies fluffed over their feet.

Sometimes the pullets just haven't taken the time to read the manual -- TLDR! I think Mother Nature - weather, atmospheric conditions, etc. also play a large role in laying patterns, beyond stress. Some pullets (of a breed) will start laying and it sometimes takes weeks for their sisters to join in. Is that because many modern breeds are hybrids? just normal genetic variation? I wouldn't know for sure.

It really seems like you are in tune with your ladies. Have faith, stop worrying, give them to 22 or so weeks before you start to panic. They do look like Reds, who usually lay early, but with all the love and great care you are giving, I'm sure they will be fine. I'm not an expert, I've only had poultry for 10 years, but as a 4-H Leader, I do a LOT of research. I think BackYard Chickens is one of the best places to go for information and advice. Good luck!

As far as I can tell they very much like and feel safe in the coop. At dusk they go to the south east corner and cluster, one or two on the bottom the rest around and on top. The roost bars are in the back of the coop, dark and snuggly!

They are ISA Browns a hybrid obtained from a hatchery in south west Ontario. Routinely bought in the area so I assumed they suited our climate.

I planed the rough cut 2" by 3" and rounded the edges with a router, seems to work very well.

BYC is the BEST source of information and GOOD FOLK that I have found!

 

[aart]

Can anyone (@aart) suggest what the white substance on the one egg is?

Try washing it off...at first glance it looks like urates, but could be excessive bloom or calcium. Closer pic, well lit and in focus, might help.

 

[Ted Brown]

Interesting influx of new posts.

I noted this as well, sudden influx of folks that I had not seen before and lots of good will and questions.

 

[Ted Brown]

Looks like many don't read past the first page before replying too...

JT

Yes. And most questions from those folks are answered in later post. However the threads are long and I don't mind.

 

[Sea Wolf]

If there is any debris (poop) on the eggs, I do rinse lightly with warm water and scrub off the material. Any washed eggs go right into the fridge. Unwashed eggs sit out for several days before I wash them off and in the fridge. I wash any unwashed egg that needs it just before using it to prevent any chance of food contamination. The white on the shell could be urates from poop or it could be that the coloring laid down on the shell wasn't smooth and had breaks in it. If it washes off, it's urates.

 

[Ted Brown]

How high off the floor are the roost bars? also, is that the nest boxes in the background of the first pic?

Roost bars are 22" to the top of the bar. They now have a shallow ramp to gut up with and also the drop boards that are 12" below top of roost bars.

No nest boxes in the coop at that moment, added a few days later and now in use for a large majority of eggs. When I added the nest box the ladies were all over it from the 1st moment I put in on the coop floor before mounting on the right hand side back wall; every other new add took them a few days to adjust to and use.

 

[CedarSpiritFarm]

Hi Ted! Your inner coop looks like Chicken Shangi La! The bedding resembles my nesting boxes so no wonder they like to cozy up as a flock and hang out on it! When my last batch of girls came as tiny chicks, during a cold PNW winter, they grew up under the heat lamps in the laundry room, huddling to sleep together. I put them out when they were large enough to withstand the sometimes cold spring weather...still with a rescue heat lamp available. My actual coop is much smaller, with a single roost and two nesting boxes for 4 hens. The main coop is a large welded wire sided, roofed structure with half of the roof being sheet metal on top of wire. Lots of outdoor scenarios it in, including a sunny raspberry patch enclosed in. My birds did not get on the roost until the second week. They were just used to huddling. I put a few up there and they squawked a bit, but shortly thereafter were all up there. Takes time.

 

[Bound to Sea]

Pictures 1st per @Texas Kiki request. I put 2-3" of fresh pine mulch on the floor and then a bale of straw that we let the ladies spread about. The 1st pic show shows mulch going in and their 2 roost boards (natural wood at the back), the 3rd last pic shows their ramp on left.

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That's a great coop!