Ribh's D'Coopage

[Grammy60]

Good morning everyone

 

[WhoDatChick]

Well, it's an interesting question.
Some you can read say it's the number of daylight hours; more daylight hours, more likely the hen will lay. This it seems is the basis for people adding light to their coops to maintain/increase production. If it was as simple as this then there shouldn't be any hens laying when the days are at their shortest.
My friend in Finland gets very short days but his hens still lay eggs.
Here, the local keepers will tell you it's not the daylight hours but from what I can translate, it's the quality or intensity of the light.
The truth seems to be that nobody is really quite sure how it works despite all the studies.
Science believes it understands the basic mechanism but....
Btw, one thing science and peoples observations have proven is that moulting is not directly connected to egg laying.
It's a bit like the statisticians who can prove that blue flashing lights cause accidents. The blue flashing lights and the accidents are coincidental but not dependent.

Hhmmmmm, very interesting.. thank you

 

[BY Bob]

It is really difficult to tell how a flock mates death effects the flock ime. The death of a tribes rooster here produces some obvious repercussions as does the death of the most senior hen.
I've posted about this elsewhere at the time of the event.
The blond hen is was called Blue Spot. After the death of her life partner Harold, Blue Spot held the tribe together. All the others in the picture are her children. Blue Spot was here when I arrived some ten years ago now. It seems likely she was already two years old before she came here to live. She had been in my life for a bit over nine years and I had watched her hatch all her family over the years.
She became ill earlier this year; a reproductive problem. First a shell less egg, then just a mess. She stopped eating enough and started to lose weight. Next came an impacted crop which I managed to clear. I ended up tube feeding her for a few days. Eventually it was obvious that I was trying to keep her alive for my benefit rather than hers and I killed her a few days after this picture was taken.
Throughout her illness her sons and daughters and granddaughters would not leave her side. Here the advice would probably have been to separate her and pump her full of drugs. I did give her Metacam in the last few days. For a couple of weeks I would take her off her perch and bring her into the house at night to get food down her and to be honest, give her a cuddle. 9 years is a long friendship and it took a few years for her to trust me enough not to run or fight. I left her with her tribe right up to the night I killed her.

Her tribe fell to pieces after her death. Her boys have never been that great and taking charge....a problem with dominant mothers perhaps. The hens wandered about without escort, the boys sulked under their usual bush and I was lucky to only lose one chick while they slowly got a grip. It took a couple of months.
Blue Spot dying
View attachment 2001509 And with her family as usual.
View attachment 2001510

My experience as well. The flock will support a sick member, not drive them away. I don't know where that came from. I tried to keep them with the flock as much as possible for support.

 

[Kris5902]

My experience as well. The flock will support a sick member, not drive them away. I don't know where that came from. I tried to keep them with the flock as much as possible for support.

It comes from bad husbandry and keeping practices. Cannibalism, and killing and eating the weakest member are all due to stresses, not truly a common flock behavior. I have seen this in my flocks as well.

Our downed calf has been constantly accompanied by others, they checked in on him, slept with him, kept the Eagles and Ravens off him... showed concern, and when we loaded him and took him away (to a barn hopefully to be rehabilitated... family drama bs**) the were very concerned at his removal.

 

[Kris5902]

It is really difficult to tell how a flock mates death effects the flock ime. The death of a tribes rooster here produces some obvious repercussions as does the death of the most senior hen.
I've posted about this elsewhere at the time of the event.
The blond hen is was called Blue Spot. After the death of her life partner Harold, Blue Spot held the tribe together. All the others in the picture are her children. Blue Spot was here when I arrived some ten years ago now. It seems likely she was already two years old before she came here to live. She had been in my life for a bit over nine years and I had watched her hatch all her family over the years.
She became ill earlier this year; a reproductive problem. First a shell less egg, then just a mess. She stopped eating enough and started to lose weight. Next came an impacted crop which I managed to clear. I ended up tube feeding her for a few days. Eventually it was obvious that I was trying to keep her alive for my benefit rather than hers and I killed her a few days after this picture was taken.
Throughout her illness her sons and daughters and granddaughters would not leave her side. Here the advice would probably have been to separate her and pump her full of drugs. I did give her Metacam in the last few days. For a couple of weeks I would take her off her perch and bring her into the house at night to get food down her and to be honest, give her a cuddle. 9 years is a long friendship and it took a few years for her to trust me enough not to run or fight. I left her with her tribe right up to the night I killed her.

Her tribe fell to pieces after her death. Her boys have never been that great and taking charge....a problem with dominant mothers perhaps. The hens wandered about without escort, the boys sulked under their usual bush and I was lucky to only lose one chick while they slowly got a grip. It took a couple of months.
Blue Spot dying
View attachment 2001509 And with her family as usual.
View attachment 2001510

Sometimes the kindest thing we can give is a peaceful passing, or a quick and as painless as possible one.

Chickens are social and, under less stressful conditions than many keepers provide, reasonably caring and supportive of their flock members. We do our best as humans, but there’s a social dynamic I don’t know if we can ever fully understand... even as pseudo-roosters

 

[Shadrach]

I haz chicks!
Knock has hatched one out of three so far and Barking Bracket has hatched two out of....I'm not quite sure.
All the hens have gone very secretive and I think some I don't know about are in fact laying.
Nolia keeps disappearing into the bamboo in the mornings, so a search is on there; not an easy thing to do.
Donk's pin bones say she's laying but I don't have a clue where.
Mel and Hurry are laying in the house nest box and it looks like Tap and Moon will be laying soon.
It's going to be a nest hunt day tomorrow by the look of things.

 

[Ribh]

I haz chicks!
Knock has hatched one out of three so far and Barking Bracket has hatched two out of....I'm not quite sure.
All the hens have gone very secretive and I think some I don't know about are in fact laying.
Nolia keeps disappearing into the bamboo in the mornings, so a search is on there; not an easy thing to do.
Donk's pin bones say she's laying but I don't have a clue where.
Mel and Hurry are laying in the house nest box and it looks like Tap and Moon will be laying soon.
It's going to be a nest hunt day tomorrow by the look of things.

That could be an all day activity. Congratulations on the chicks! I am assuming there will be pictures soon. Pretty please...

 

[Shadrach]

That could be an all day activity. Congratulations on the chicks! I am assuming there will be pictures soon. Pretty please...

I almost got some pictures today but didn't have enough hands. I was watching a chick hatch while lifting Bracket a bit off her eggs.

 

[Ribh]

I almost got some pictures today but didn't have enough hands. I was watching a chick hatch while lifting Bracket a bit off her eggs.

Now that has to be pretty cool!

 

[BY Bob]

I haz chicks!
Knock has hatched one out of three so far and Barking Bracket has hatched two out of....I'm not quite sure.
All the hens have gone very secretive and I think some I don't know about are in fact laying.
Nolia keeps disappearing into the bamboo in the mornings, so a search is on there; not an easy thing to do.
Donk's pin bones say she's laying but I don't have a clue where.
Mel and Hurry are laying in the house nest box and it looks like Tap and Moon will be laying soon.
It's going to be a nest hunt day tomorrow by the look of things.

Congratulations on the chicks! That's awesome.