Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

[Mother of Chaos]

It's gonna be anytime now

It was actually 20 yesterday
But this was the 17 -- that one front and center is straight up turquoise and the camera just cannot capture it and I tried like 20 times to get a good accurate picture of that rich bluegreen and it just says NOPE.
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Gorgeous!!!

 

[kattabelly]

We’re on about the same latitude as you, and we’re pretty close to 11 hours (by chicken definition) - about 7:05 am to 6:50 pm.

How do your chickens define daylight hours?

We'll be getting over seven hours from this Friday (by clock definition ). No one here old enough to've stopped laying over winter, but already had one new starter.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

How do your chickens define daylight hours?

We'll be getting over seven hours from this Friday (by clock definition ). No one here old enough to've stopped laying over winter, but already had one new starter.

Dawn for my chickens: when there’s enough daylight to wake them up, and if the coop wasn’t shut due to cold (the run is always shut and locked), they’re out in the run, demanding to be let out.

Dusk: one by one, but within five minutes total, they head into the run and up into the coop.

I know that there are different definitions like civil twilight and astronomical twilight, but as an obedient Hooman whose job it is to cater to their every demand, I follow their clock.

 

[thistlewick]

That pretty green one, Kattabelly!!! I remember you sharing a pic

tbh re; the daylight hours I just quickly googled how much I was getting right now hahah

I'm out there SO much more than usual these past few days trying to root out the egg eater

2 days with nothing. 1 hen in jail for 1 day. The test continues.

If the hen in jail is the culprit I will be so relieved - she was pecking at some really gross and dirty eggs that I found that were laid in the POOP TABLES of all places, found on the day I removed the poop tables. It was a huge pile of 15 eggs. Stuck them in a bucket and out on the little pallet table we have outside.

Saw this hen (It's Dulce, an EE) trying to get in there and peck and them. Maybe its her?! lol

 

[kattabelly]

Dawn for my chickens: when there’s enough daylight to wake them up, and if the coop wasn’t shut due to cold (the run is always shut and locked), they’re out in the run, demanding to be let out.

Dusk: one by one, but within five minutes total, they head into the run and up into the coop.

I know that there are different definitions like civil twilight and astronomical twilight, but as an obedient Hooman whose job it is to cater to their every demand, I follow their clock.

Think that would put us on around 9 hours, by chicken definition.

Have you noticed if yours use the twilight hours more or less depending on the time of year?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Think that would put us on around 9 hours, by chicken definition.

Have you noticed if yours use the twilight hours more or less depending on the time of year?

Not sure what you mean by “using.” Maaaaybe they hang out in the run itself a few more minutes, doing a little pecking and scratching, but usually they put themselves promptly to bed.

If you mean do they stretch their outside time a bit in the setting of short daylight hours before, then again, maaaaybe. Not by much, though. We have a pretty significant hawk presence, and I think that once it’s dark enough for them to have difficulty in seeing aerial predators, they go for safety.

I know that oftentimes I’ll look at my watch at the end of the day and say “whoops”, and when I get out there to close up, they’re up on the roosts and I get a lot of disapproving stares. They very much set their own timetable. The times I’m there as they put themselves to bed, I hear mild clucking for about two minutes (“OMG, whose feet am I smelling?!” “Mind your own business and smell your own!!”), and then silence.

 

[kattabelly]

If you mean do they stretch their outside time a bit in the setting of short daylight hours before, then again, maaaaybe.

Yes, this. (Not quite sure what the difference is between this and your first paragraph which for some reason my phone doesn't want me to quote.) With the difference in day length here, recently they've been getting up an hour or more before sunrise and only going to roost almost an hour after sunset. In the middle of summer they'll be roosting for a few hours of daylight.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Yes, this. (Not quite sure what the difference is between this and your first paragraph which for some reason my phone doesn't want me to quote.) With the difference in day length here, recently they've been getting up an hour or more before sunrise and only going to roost almost an hour after sunset. In the middle of summer they'll be roosting for a few hours of daylight.

That’s so interesting! I’ve always associated chicken behavior with available daylight. Maybe in the high latitudes (both North and South), chickens are less dependent on daylight, because at some point, you just have to deal with it.

I think you said that your girls have continued to lay through the winter; is that correct? I’m planning to write a paper/presentation for my Avian Ecology class on ovulation triggers, so I’d be grateful to hear of your experience.

(I was somewhat surprised that my layers went on partial vacay this winter, but they were hatched in January 2025, so maybe that explains it.)

As to the paras, the first was addressing activity in a protected aviary-type run, and the second was re: the more open backyard/ back garden.

 

[kattabelly]

I think you said that your girls have continued to lay through the winter; is that correct? I’m planning to write a paper/presentation for my Avian Ecology class on ovulation triggers, so I’d be grateful to hear of your experience.

They have but that's not at all unusual for pullets that only started laying for the first time in the late summer/early autumn. I was slightly surprised to have one new layer start only two weeks after the winter solstice, when days had just started getting longer but we were still getting less than 6½ hours of daylight ("clock definition").

It's hardly accurate or complete data but since the autumn I've been trying to make a note on my own thread of what time, relative to sunset, they went to roost. I'm not around at the right time in the morning as often, or I'd be doing that too.

 

[kattabelly]

Sorry @thistlewick didn't mean to hijack your thread!