Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: Mr R Design on November 14, 2016, 16:21
-
I have had no eggs from my 3 little blighters for almost a month.
When do they start laying again under natural conditions? (i.e. without any electrical lighting setups)
-
depends on the age and type of the hen.
Mine have so far taken 2 months, but Sprout has feathered up and started going red again......I'm hoping soon, she is about 4, whereas Buey who is 5 has just started.
The younger ones who are 2 are really slow.
-
The irritating but true answer is when they are ready! Mine used to start laying about Christmas, but I know a lot would not start again til Feb/March. Mine were pure breeds which take longer off than hybrids. It will be worth the wait :)
-
My older hens stop after their August moult and do not lay again until spring time, about March. My younger one is still laying.
-
My oldies are moulting and that coincides with them going,off lay due to low light conditions, they will start again in early Feb (hopefully). Two new hens just started laying and should go through the winter this first year. Hope they all moult at the same time again next year so that I just miss out on eggs for a couple of months or so.
Eggs usually rationed over winter to try to eke out the stash (they seem to stay fresh for well over a month), as I hate buying eggs!
-
Usually Feb/Mar they will ramp up to another laying cycle. Some precocious girls will start in January.
-
Wow, sorry to be different but my 7 warrens are between 18 months and 3 years old and keep laying all through the winter. I have 4 every day. Just bog standard hybrids not your too posh to push birds lol :tongue2:
-
Some birds will continue on through the winter at a reduced rate and some don't slow down at all, but burn out early in their lives. But, by and large, those that stop for winter usually resume by Feb. Usually if I have any BAs not molting when winter hits, they will lay on through the winter months.
-
Be they pure breeds or hybrids hens are born with the number of eggs they are going to lay. Hybrids generally lay loads per year but do not live very long, pure breeds don't lay so many per year but can lay for years. :)
-
I think I must be really lucky or doing something right as mine lay every day :). Pecky my dodgy eyed bent toed speckled lays every day for 12 then has a day off whatever the weather, Babs the Barred Rock is every other day and Hen who was always a 12 eggs and a day off, is now say two or three a week. Mine are let out every afternoon, let on the lawn maybe twice a week for 20 minutes, a handfull of hentastik each day between them and a sprinkle of corn at bed time. Every day the coops are checked and poop removed, food topped up. I use Smallholders Layer Pellets. Now both dotties are sharing, the Eglu coop is a bit more messy, Pecky was a very tidy bird 8) Oh another thing I change the water every day, and if frozen replace with tepid tap water. I have made two drinkers for the Dotties out of plastic butter tubs, Lurpak, and have mounted these with garden wire to the run sides. I keep two spare in the house so first thing in the morning I can do a quick change without getting my birds too excited :lol: Hen has her own food and drinker which never freezes over :)
-
What breed and how old Danfinn?
-
Just spent the last two hours securing the large run from wild birds due to the avian flu alert. So no chance of mixing now until January!
-
Well wouldn't you know it :blush: No eggs today, a blank, nil, nothing :(
We did have three yesterday, and one or two before, so this is not usual, and now they got to be penned up all the time that will not help. :(
My birds are "Hen" Collumbian black tail nearly 3, "Pecky" say 8 months Speckledy, "Babs" Barred Rock say 5 months the new ones are not moulting and hen loses a few feathers here and there but has never lost a lot, in fact the back of her neck is getting spikey now as the feathers are getting old.
-
Assuming that 'Hen' is 3 years old and not 3 months I think that she has now stopped laying totally until next year and Pecky and Babs have had a day off.
Last winter was my three's first winter and they layed all the way through, it is this winter, their second, that they have stopped.
Fingers crossed you will get some thing today and if you do I suspect it will be from Pecky or Babs (or even both).
Other than that you need to go Sainsburys, they are just as nice. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-
Well folks I'm delighted to say I had 3 eggs today, they all did me proud :D Yes Hen is coming up 3 years old and good as ever :). She has always been a good layer, but like her late sisters Beryl and Sandy gives a very thin shell. Pecky and Babs give a much thicker shell and you have to hit them hard with the knife to break. I did think I was feeding them wrong but now believe it is the bird at fault.
Talking to a farmer last year and she was over the moon that her hens just ket going.
Here in the centre of England we are spared most times from rough weather, and since I have been keeping hens (May 2014) the ground has been mainly very dry. Up until September I had to get the hose out to keep our bit of lawn green for my hens
-
To answer the question that was raised in my original post at the start of the thread the answer is '15 February 2017'
WHEHEY I'VE HAD AN EGG FROM HENRIETTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-
The days are getting better.
-
Hey how about that, R Design, My 3 year old Henrietta started laying again, a week ago, after a very heavy moult, that she never did before :ohmy:. In fact mine never seem to lose a lot of feathers, just the odd one here and there. Some days we are up to an egg off each, usually 2 from the younger dotties.
I bet they will be quite confused when I am able to leave the run door open :unsure: