Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: jayelle on August 30, 2011, 20:52
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Hi everyone!
I've been looking at your site, and was wondering if anyone could offer some advice please?
My fella wanted chickens for his birthday, so we are suddenly the proud owners of 4 beautiful hybrid hens. They are all about 22-24 weeks and seem to have settled in wonderfully. They are very relaxed and friendly, and are remarkably tolerant of our excited 3 year old! They are mainly kept in a large enclosure, but are having supervised time in the garden each afternoon.
One of the hens has laid an egg every single day, including the day we picked them up. A different hen has laid twice in the past week. That's it. I've read in several places that moving house is stressful, and re-starting laying can take time. My burning question is "Roughly how long?" Are we talking days, weeks or months- or am I doing the equivalent of asking "how long is a piece of string"?....
I'd be grateful of any advice you can offer.
Thanks for reading!
Jen
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Hi Jen, and congratulations on your new hens! :D
All your girls are old enough to be laying so I assume they were all laying at their previous home. If so, it could be a few weeks before they all get back into the groove again at your place. Although they are tolerant of your 3-year-old, it will also help if things are kept calm and relaxed around them until they are all properly settled in. (I know, easier said than done... ;))
If your hens were older I would suggest that they may go through a moult at this time of year and start laying again later. But at this age they should go through their first autumn/winter without moulting, so hopefully you will have a steady supply of eggs all winter.
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It depends on the breed. My White Stars both started laying at 17 weeks but the larger Maran types are much later......Galaxy was 32 weeks when she laid her first "softy" and after 3 weeks of erratic soft eggs she is now laying a lovely speckledy egg every couple of days and if she's anything like the Magpie she'll go on to be a pretty reliable layer.
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Thanks both. We're all very excited to have our girls, and I just wanted to check everything was ok really. I'd hate to think they weren't laying because we were accidentally doing something wrong...
We've got 4 different breeds, all hybrids. We've got a Ranger, a white Light Sussex, a Copper Black Maran and a Blue Haze/Nova. The Blue (Curry - don't worry, I'm a strict vegetarian) is the only one who's laying regularly, and she seems bigger than the other hens. I'm wondering if she's older than we were told?
And yes, my 3 year old's enthusiasm is being damped down as much as we can - and taking the little one (aged 19 months) anywhere near them is being avoided as much as possible, cos he literally screams with excitement...
Thanks again.
Jen
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and remember all hens are born with the eggs they will lay in a lifetime, so what you dont get now you will enjoy later!
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Jen, I have two nephews. Big Boy turns 3 this Saturday and Little Boy is 19 months. Big Boy has been talking on the phone to my chickens and looking forward to meeting them. He finally got his chance the other day after I carefully explained that he must not chase them!
Well out into the yard we went and six chickens ran straight at him to discover if he had any treats in his pockets. Poor boy ran away with chickens in hot pursuit! :lol: Oh I shouldn't laugh - but I was so concerned about him chasing them that it had never ocurred to me that it might be the other way around. :)
Meanwhile Little Boy grabbed a handful of grain and waddled over to the chickens and let them peck it out of his tight little fist, and didn't seem the least concerned about the efforts they were employing to wrench the grain from his grasp.
So Little Boy and chickens had a lovely day, my sister and I had a delightful time watching chicken/child interactions, and Big Boy is not quite sure whether he likes chickens after all... :unsure:
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Jen, I have two nephews. Big Boy turns 3 this Saturday and Little Boy is 19 months. Big Boy has been talking on the phone to my chickens and looking forward to meeting them. He finally got his chance the other day after I carefully explained that he must not chase them!
Well out into the yard we went and six chickens ran straight at him to discover if he had any treats in his pockets. Poor boy ran away with chickens in hot pursuit! :lol: Oh I shouldn't laugh - but I was so concerned about him chasing them that it had never ocurred to me that it might be the other way around. :)
Meanwhile Little Boy grabbed a handful of grain and waddled over to the chickens and let them peck it out of his tight little fist, and didn't seem the least concerned about the efforts they were employing to wrench the grain from his grasp.
So Little Boy and chickens had a lovely day, my sister and I had a delightful time watching chicken/child interactions, and Big Boy is not quite sure whether he likes chickens after all... :unsure:
haha! what a great read :) thanks for putting a smile on my face :D