The Freeloader Diaries - Freeloading Revisited

[fallenweeble]

this is hilarious!

have you tried to bribe them with an infered lamp?
maybe a little extra special warm spot will get them all happy, relaxed and in the giving spirit?

please keep posting. your diary makes me smile and chuckle.

 

[thndrdancr]

Goodness

I have TWO, mind you TWO girls of egglaying age, and I am getting One egg every day and TWO eggs every other day. So one is laying every day, the other is laying bout 5 days a week. Hmm, the poor things must need a break by now. And this only started in Mid December. Before that I was getting TWO eggs a day.

Maybe my girls should have a talk with your girls.

 

[Churkenduse]

I guess I should consider myself lucky then, my tiny Tina lays about 4-5 a week. They are very tiny but delicious!!!

Be patient, when you get them the feeling is undescribable!

.

 

[MissPrissy]

What are your girls eating? There was a post a while back on the discussion of fruit causing birds to not lay. I can't remember which hatchery it is that warns of it on their website also.

I have some pullets that did not start to lay until 28+ weeks and even some that didn't start until 30+ weeks. Hang in there. They really aren't that old yet.

 

[Nichole77]

I feel you, my barred rock and RIR started laying and they each lay one a day but my easter beggars give me nothing. They are all the same age.

 

[Bawkadoodledoo]

Quote:
I do believe that hatchery was Meyers hatchery...

 

[Cuban Longtails]

The day before yesterday my layers gave me four eggs, yesterday I got six!

But then the weather went wonky (low 20's last night, only into the mid 50's for today) and we're low on feed so I may not get any today.

 

[arwmommy]

OK, we have 3 bantam cochins, and they are 9 MONTHS old...........and only one has started laying and she just started a few weeks ago. 9 MONTHS OLD AND NO EGGS YET FROM 2 OF THEM! GRRRRRRRRRR..................

 

[Chellester]

DIARY ENTRY FOR THE DAY OF 01/30/08:

Another very nice, sunny January day today. After a week of almost constant rain, it's good to be having some nice days this week. My freeloaders are enjoying it too; they spent the day stretching out in the sun and dust bathing in the dry spots around the yard. They also are enjoying the fact that, now that its no longer a wet, miserable mess outside, I can get out there and throw scratch to them more often. The Delaware's faces are getting quite red... I'd like to think that this means they are getting close to laying, but more than likely they just got sunburned with all the sun we've been having lately.

I'd like to clear up an error I made in a previous post; I mentioned that I was feeding my freeloaders laying mash. I am in fact feeding a grower/finisher with 20% protein. I have always referred to the processed feed as layer and the cracked grains as scratch. Someone emailed me (and since they didn't post it here, I am assuming they wanted to remain private) and said they read that you should feed layer until you get your first egg. I agree with that school of thought, however there are also those who believe that when they get to laying age, you should switch to layer so they will have enough calcium to make their first eggshell with. My unedjumacated guess is that its just a matter of the preference of the owner and either way doesn't really make much difference, but that's just me.

fallenweeble, I have thought about using a lamp, but the way things have been going with these freeloaders, it probably wouldn't do much good... I'd just be spending more money and still getting no eggs, so why should I make their feathery freeloading butts more confortable to boot?

MissPrissy, they have not had any fruit for a few weeks now. When they were allowed to freerange in the yard, they would pick at the pomagranites that fell from out trees, but now they are in a fenced yard where they can't get to them anymore. There are olive trees in their yard, and they occasionally pick at them, but don't seem to care for them all that much. My guess is that, if fruit actually affects egglaying, it's the acid that does it, and olives aren't really acidy. (Are they even considered a fruit; anybody know?) Anyway, only the standards can get to the olives; the banties are in pens and can't use the olives as an excuse.

And yes, I agree that most of them are still on the youngish end of the egglaying age range; it's the D'Uccles that are 28 weeks old today that I am most mad at.

As far as the others; well, I look at it this way: say you got a 16 year old kid at home. At 16, he's old enough to get a part-time job, but he doesn't because he's not 18 yet and he knows you still got to support his freeloading butt until he's 18. Once he hits 18, he knows he has to get a job, because if he doesn't, you might cut him off entirely. I use the same analogy for the chickens... at around 20 weeks, they know that since they are in the egglaying range, but they know they aren't going to get [their heads] cutt off until they are well outside the 30+ week range, so they just don't bother with it. The point is, although they are on the youngish end of the egglaying age range, they are still old enough to lay. They just don't want to because they know they really don't have to yet.

arwmommy, you have two that are 9 months old and no eggs out of them yet?!?! They must have just hit egg laying age right when it started getting cold out. Even knowing that, I'd still have chased them around the yard with a hatchet at least a half a dozen times by now.

Well, I think I wrote enough for today.

Oh, BTW, I found a strange object in the D'Uccle pen today. It looks vaugely familiar; I think I've seen one of these a while back, but it's been so long ago that I'm not sure what it is. I took a picture of it:

I put a golf ball beside it so you all could have something to compare to for size.



Any ideas of what it could be?

 

[hcammack]

ha they arnt free loader close this post imedialty LOL