The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[speckledhen]

Wow that Lizzie's barring is nice.

Bear is too cute.

She's a beauty, all right, but pretty is as pretty does. Now, she needs to LAY AN EGG!

LOL. I'm so down on my producers now, she has some pressure on her.

 

[speckledhen]

Sad, sad news today: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1022047/our-wise-benevolent-flock-leader-has-passed-rip-isaac

 

[crazyhen]

It seems it is that time of year. If I lose a hen or roo it is always in the Fall. My egg production is terrible too. They seem to be in a hard molt this yr. I get one and sometimes two eggs a day from 12 hens. The new hens are not laying yet. I started late in the spring to hatch this yr. I have put them on the higher protein feed to help but the eggs they do lay are extremely thin. I also give them oyster shells ground. Always before the eggs they laid stayed nice but this yr. they are very thin. I think I will go back to the feed I had them on . Maybe the protein is too much for their systems and interferes with the calcium absorption???????

 

[speckledhen]

It seems it is that time of year. If I lose a hen or roo it is always in the Fall. My egg production is terrible too. They seem to be in a hard molt this yr. I get one and sometimes two eggs a day from 12 hens. The new hens are not laying yet. I started late in the spring to hatch this yr. I have put them on the higher protein feed to help but the eggs they do lay are extremely thin. I also give them oyster shells ground. Always before the eggs they laid stayed nice but this yr. they are very thin. I think I will go back to the feed I had them on . Maybe the protein is too much for their systems and interferes with the calcium absorption???????

Could be they need a Vitamin D supplement. Also, molting will make thin shells. I have almost no eggs, either, but my birds are mostly elderly. My 28 week old BR pullet isn't laying yet and I have an 11 week old who won't lay for ages. I am getting 1-3 eggs/day from over 20 LF hens. The bantams haven't laid in months and months, some in literally years (they are terrible layers, this bunch).

 

[1muttsfan]

Of my young hens so far only 1 is laying, and Iam sure it is one of the Dels. Apart from that I get two eggs from my two cream legbars almost every day, and that is it until the rest of the youngsters start laying. My two old timers lay very rarely.

 

[holm25]

I am so sorry Cyn!!!!

 

[speckledhen]

I am so sorry Cyn!!!!

Thank you, Isaiah. Deacon is back in that coop tonight. I realized it would be much, much warmer over winter for him and Rita than where they were living, plus he used to live there before Isaac decided he would no longer tolerate him.So, today, I moved him and Rita back after giving Ike's girls a couple of days to settle down.

He fought at the fence with Atlas awhile but realized it was stupid and quit. He seems scared of those hens and hasn't made a move on any of them. In fact, he's sleeping in a nest box tonight, something he's never done, with Rita behind him in the nest, and Georgie on the edge in front of him. Georgie used to roost beside him way back before I had to remove him from Ike's coop and she's back to her usual routine, I guess.

Deacon wanted even more petting than usual tonight. He's realized that his daddy is not there, really not there anymore, and it's sort of unsettled him. Here is a short video I made of me petting my sweet boy, trying to comfort him.

 

[1muttsfan]

I am sure Deacon loves to hear your southern drawl just as much as I do

 

[speckledhen]

I am sure Deacon loves to hear your southern drawl just as much as I do

Hey! I resemble that remark! I can "un-southern" when I try, but I rarely try anymore. When we came back from living out west, I could barely understand Tom's family anymore. Many years ago when his youngest sister got engaged, I asked her fiance's last name. She said what I thought was "Whales". I asked her, repeating "Whales? Spell it for me". She spelled W-E-L-L-S.

 

[drumstick diva]

Yep, that how it would sound.