Too much love?

[mildolmom]

I have 2 W leghorns, 2 EEs, RIR, Buff Orp, Silverlaced Wyn, and Brn leghorn. My girls all hatched Oct 1, my first eggs were on Valentines day. They are all free ranged, and fed Layena. To date I only have 3 laying, 1 WL, RIR, and 1 EE. I have heard it is possible they are waiting until spring. I am just concerned that they are being bothered too much. My three year old has been dubed the "chicken girl"! She is constantly after the chickens and is always holding "tami" the Buff Orp. All my girls were raised in the house and handled alot, all seem very social especiallt the RIR and the Buff.

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS TOO MUCH LOVE!!??
others experience would be appreciated!

I posted pics

 

[cmom]

I have some that hatched Oct 1. Some have started laying and some have not. Some of my others hatched Oct 1-3 of my older birds and some didn't start laying until the the first through the middle of April.

 

[cmom]

Oops!!! A duplicate........

 

[digitS']

This is that old: "Don't pick them up, they'll stop laying!" story I used to get when I was a little kid.

Is it true? I don't know. Old Wives Tales sometimes turn out to have good reasoning behind them. However, this reasoning may have been: "Don't get attached to them, they are going to end up on the chopping block!"

I have a hard time believing that something that doesn't cause stress will discourage laying. If the love is upsetting the birds, it would not take a lot to kick them out of production. Is the 3 year-old a little rough on 'em?

Cmom is saying that they are still pretty young. October 1st until right now is only 24 weeks. October 1st until February 14th is 19 weeks - and laying at that age is surprising since those weeks occurred through late Fall and Winter in a northern clime.

This turned into a real: on one hand/on the other hand response. I hope it helps a little

.

Steve

 

[msgenie516]

Hi,

The only way that I think it could be a problem to handle them too much is if they become very upset/agitated when being picked up. If they are tame and remain calm, I don't think that should pose a problem at all.

I don't have the excuse of being a 3-year-old (that's for sure!) but I also pick up my chickens a lot and carry them around and they lay great.

Hope this helps!

Genie

 

[kees]

You seem to have a win-win proposition right in front of you. Wouldn't the world be so much better if more people had pets to love? (If, they were responsible pet owners!)

Suzy

Please post pictures if possible!

 

[Squawk Squad]

Too much love? Depends on how they are handled. Of course chickens don't like being strangled or hung by their feet, wings, or tail. But just picking them up and petting them any time you see them is fine, I do it all the time. The result is very tame chickens that just looove being petted. If I sit down and there are chickens around you can bet there will be one trying to hop up for some attention. One time I knelt down to feed one, and I ended up with a chicken on both knees, on my arm, on my back, and one on my head.

So in my opinion, if the love is given properly there cant be too much of it.

 

[JennsPeeps]

We pick our girls up & love on them quite often. We also pick up & love the eggs they lay!