Sumatra Thread!

[zach N houdan]

I have never had that dark of blues.

see my blues are from Tom Kernan and mine are much darker than yours?

 

[championsumatra]

my sumatras are not from Tom Kernan. mine are from a really good chicken breeder in Arizona. he is a specialist at breeding the sumatras. he has got grand master exhibitor,and grand master breeder. I had asked the poultry judges if my sumatras where the right shade of blue because I had thought that they could be too light but they had said that it was the perfect shade of blue. it sound like yours are too dark.

 

[championsumatra]

this up comming friday I will be going to a chicken show, here are some pics of me getting then ready. wish me luck

 

[dsfrango]

this up comming friday I will be going to a chicken show, here are some pics of me getting then ready. wish me luck

That's great, they seem to be allowing you to handle them Good luck at the show! I'm sure you'll do well with those birds

 

[zach N houdan]

my sumatras are not from Tom Kernan. mine are from a really good chicken breeder in Arizona. he is a specialist at breeding the sumatras. he has got grand master exhibitor,and grand master breeder. I had asked the poultry judges if my sumatras where the right shade of blue because I had thought that they could be too light but they had said that it was the perfect shade of blue. it sound like yours are too dark.

ok well i dont know any champion lines out of Arizona but at the Crossroads show Tom's Blues won BV and RV so i dont know how mine are too dark?

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

As I was out moving birds around the other day, I moved the bantam sumatras to a larger pen (half of the main coop) and what do I find in the house? Oh, a broody dun hen. Normally they don't lay this late in the season for us, but she has a decent clutch and has been fighting off the birds that dare wander near her.
Also, we've been getting lots of snow lately and the crazy sumatras all decided to fly out of their coop when I opened the door. This is what most of them ended up like

 

[caj1985]

As I was out moving birds around the other day, I moved the bantam sumatras to a larger pen (half of the main coop) and what do I find in the house? Oh, a broody dun hen. Normally they don't lay this late in the season for us, but she has a decent clutch and has been fighting off the birds that dare wander near her.
Also, we've been getting lots of snow lately and the crazy sumatras all decided to fly out of their coop when I opened the door. This is what most of them ended up like

So does this mean that I should expect to wait until spring for my 26 week old pullets to start laying? They are the only breeds from that hatch that haven't started yet. They are my first experience with Sumatras and wondered if they were seasonal layers.

 

[caj1985]

I guess I answered myself because one of my pullets laid her first egg today.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

We always have a few LF hens that will lay through the winter, the bantams will sneeze out an egg every once in awhile in the winter for the most part. But we have some new bloodlines this year which may be why we're seeing more eggs. I know many of the birds I sent out to folks down in the Southeast US are laying now along with some that were sent to the coast. It just depends on lots of factors. We did have a later snowfall this year than normal it seems, and we had a few days in the 60's a couple weeks back which I'm sure helped it all

 

[Bentley]

Extremes in ambient temperature can sometimes effect egg production. When I lived in Arizona my birds often quit laying in the middle of the summer because it was just to dang hot for them. However, duration of light is the driving force in sexual maturation. Extending the day length with artificial lights can help keep birds in production through the winter months. Perceived 'day lengths' in excess of 14 hours will 'trick' the birds into thinking its spring time and their reproductive systems will stay active even in cold weather. Egg production might still be reduced due to cooler temperatures, but most birds will stay reproductively active. The 'day length' has to be consistent each day though or the birds will think short days and Fall are around the corner and they will begin to shut down. You can use a small and cheap light timer on a single bulb to get enough lights for eggs production. All my birds lay all winter, not at the same rate of production, but pretty close.