Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: ness on January 06, 2008, 20:00

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: ness on January 06, 2008, 20:00

Hello
I have 3 chooks, 2 youngsters (hatched July) and mother hen.  I've noticed the young'uns combs have really reddened up in the last week or so.  Does that mean there may be eggs on the way or am I getting far too excited about nothing?!?  :lol:
Ness x

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: Selkie on January 06, 2008, 20:02

Ness, I'm pretty sure it is connected to laying/maturity -- our two now have much brighter red combs than they did a couple of weeks ago (when they were still on a winter break from laying eggs)

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: richyrich7 on January 06, 2008, 20:39

July sounds about right 20 -24 weeks is generally when they start to lay, but day length, food etc etc affects this.

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: Selkie on January 06, 2008, 20:39

Is the reddening comb a visual sign to the cockerel that they're ready to make babies?

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: richyrich7 on January 06, 2008, 20:45

Quote from: "rosemarycallsthegoddess"

Is the reddening comb a visual sign to the cockerel that they're ready to make babies?

Hope your not asking me those complicated kind of questions Rosemary  :lol:  To be honest I've got no idea, but it sounds like a good feasible answer, also I think it may be linked to pecking order as the top hen in my flock always seems to have the biggest reddest comb

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: Selkie on January 06, 2008, 20:47

Sorry Rich :lol: , I will try and look it up in some of my old uni books and see if there's anything about it to answer my questions

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: richyrich7 on January 06, 2008, 20:50

Quote from: "rosemarycallsthegoddess"

Sorry Rich :lol: , I will try and look it up in some of my old uni books and see if there's anything about it to answer my questions

Goodie I'll just go back to the corner with my pointy hat and "D" on it then. :D   :lol:

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: ness on January 06, 2008, 21:19

Thank you, am going to try not to get too excited. Mother Hen has had a wonderfully red comb through out caring for her babies (now adults) but shes not laying, once red do they just stay red whether laying or not?

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: richyrich7 on January 06, 2008, 21:26

Well I can only go on my experience ness ( which is not huge ) but yes I seem to find their combs go paler when not in lay.

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: Aunt Sally on January 06, 2008, 21:27

They tend to get smaller and paler when they are off lay ness.

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: chickychick on January 06, 2008, 22:01

Yep I recon there are eggs on the way  :D
My chickens definately had redder combs just before they started to lay and the combs became noticably bigger too.

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: slowef on January 06, 2008, 22:06

My girls have redder combs in lay and some also flop to one side depending on the breed.  They go very pale when the bird goes into a moult, my buff's comb was almost white poor little love but she soon recovered

Title: Reddening Comb
Post by: Selkie on January 07, 2008, 12:46

Well I've had a trawl through some of my old books and couldn't find anything about hens' combs, but I did find some interesting stuff about pecking orders, though I only have two hens so it isn't really relevant to me :roll: