- May 1, 2014
- 28
- 0
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Hello! My daughter started this profile a while ago but this is the first time I've written.
INFO: mixed flock of 10 month olds and 8 month old hens and 1, 10 month old rooster who was raised up with the hens from a chick. Breeds: Black Australorps(Roo+3 hens), Buff orpinton(2 hens), ameraucana(4 hens).
Anyway, we have had an interesting change in behavior this winter with our flock of 9 hens and 1 roo. The whole flock has seemed to stop roosting up on the bars at night. I've purposely gone down after dark to close them up and have found them all on the floor of the coop, milling around, some nesting, maybe a pair together huddled on the floor "sleeping", but nothing consistent that would indicate that they're in distress or cold? I'm still getting eggs every day even during freezing temps and poor weather. I also started finding 1 hen, an 8 month old Ameraucana, alone on a straw bale outside the coop under the eve at night. I have to collect her each night and put her in the house.
Most suprisingly, I've had to push the rooster out of the nesting box each evening in order to collect the eggs!? He seems to be in the nesting box sitting on almost all of the eggs, while a hen or two may be nesting in the other 2 boxes, the Ameraucana is out behind on the straw bale alone, and the other hens are in some state of milling or sleeping on the floor of the coop. I can't figure out whats going on and why the change? I went back through the coop with filler to fill any potential cracks that may have caused a draft that might have been bothering them and checked the inside physically for anything weird like nests or fallen roosts, etc. All seems good?
They have been a content flock that has put themselves to bed up on the roosting logs up to this point? Any ideas? They are free range inside a large fenced garden area and are still laying eggs each day even through a miserably cold and snowy December. They have dry, snow free areas to access outside and seem normal during the day foraging, etc. Any ideas would be appreciated!
INFO: mixed flock of 10 month olds and 8 month old hens and 1, 10 month old rooster who was raised up with the hens from a chick. Breeds: Black Australorps(Roo+3 hens), Buff orpinton(2 hens), ameraucana(4 hens).
Anyway, we have had an interesting change in behavior this winter with our flock of 9 hens and 1 roo. The whole flock has seemed to stop roosting up on the bars at night. I've purposely gone down after dark to close them up and have found them all on the floor of the coop, milling around, some nesting, maybe a pair together huddled on the floor "sleeping", but nothing consistent that would indicate that they're in distress or cold? I'm still getting eggs every day even during freezing temps and poor weather. I also started finding 1 hen, an 8 month old Ameraucana, alone on a straw bale outside the coop under the eve at night. I have to collect her each night and put her in the house.
Most suprisingly, I've had to push the rooster out of the nesting box each evening in order to collect the eggs!? He seems to be in the nesting box sitting on almost all of the eggs, while a hen or two may be nesting in the other 2 boxes, the Ameraucana is out behind on the straw bale alone, and the other hens are in some state of milling or sleeping on the floor of the coop. I can't figure out whats going on and why the change? I went back through the coop with filler to fill any potential cracks that may have caused a draft that might have been bothering them and checked the inside physically for anything weird like nests or fallen roosts, etc. All seems good?
They have been a content flock that has put themselves to bed up on the roosting logs up to this point? Any ideas? They are free range inside a large fenced garden area and are still laying eggs each day even through a miserably cold and snowy December. They have dry, snow free areas to access outside and seem normal during the day foraging, etc. Any ideas would be appreciated!
