Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Janebo12

edmund_blackadder wrote: »

Mine haven't laid anything yet either ...... :eek:

We just kept getting told "any day now..." then the day came that they definitely wouldn't be laying any eggs :rotfl:.

Hope you have better luck than we did

edmund_blackadder

Janebo12 wrote: »

We just kept getting told "any day now..." then the day came that they definitely wouldn't be laying any eggs :rotfl:.

Hope you have better luck than we did

Me too!...

jpwhittle

does anyone else have a lady that likes to make alot of noise at sunrise? maggie is definatly female she lays and everything but i think shes in need of a gender realignment lol.
she is bossy, she bullies the others and yesterday i heard her making alot of noise at 6.30 am. when i looked out the window to see they were ok she was just stood in the corner ofthe coop facing the sunrise and not crowing but going cluck cluck cluck cluck cluuuuuuuuuuuukkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk lol, cant see the neighbours being very impressed if she carries on. so does anyone else have a lady (or not quite lady) that does this? my other 2 are so quiet

Frugaldom

I have several very noisy hens that always, without fail, announce the arrival of an egg. One starts and then that sets off a chain reaction. I always laugh when I read coments about hens being quiet because it's a myth! LOL Ex battery hens can be quieter as they are into their second season of laying by the time they reach gardens, but younger hens just starting laying can get noisy. Think about it - a hen laying an egg is similar to her giving birth - wouldn't you get noisy if you'd to do that every other day with no way of avoiding it? :rotfl: Some take it in their stride, others just have to cluck about it. The again, if your noisy hen isn't laying eggs, is she growing any pretty tail feathers? :eek::rotfl:

Edmund - can you post photos of your hens? O'm sure they will be hens, but you never know. The only other thing I can think of is how many hours access to daylight they have? As a very general rule of thumb (that may even be an old wives' tale) a hen needs a minimum of 14 hours daylight to lay eggs, that's why egg production drops during winter and why barns of intensively kept hens need artificial light. If it's any help, my Araucanas haven't started laying yet and they are now almost 23 weeks old - but any day now I should get my first blue egg

edmund_blackadder

nykmedia wrote: »

Edmund - can you post photos of your hens? O'm sure they will be hens, but you never know. The only other thing I can think of is how many hours access to daylight they have? As a very general rule of thumb (that may even be an old wives' tale) a hen needs a minimum of 14 hours daylight to lay eggs, that's why egg production drops during winter and why barns of intensively kept hens need artificial light. If it's any help, my Araucanas haven't started laying yet and they are now almost 23 weeks old - but any day now I should get my first blue egg

I'll look into getting some photo's done ... although I don't really believe they are anything other than hens at all.

They are let out into the run from any time from between 6.30 and 7.30 in the morning (very rarely 7.30 though) and they get let out of the run at midday (as we were advised to keep them in the run until midday as they may lay during the morning) to roam the whole garden. They then put themselves to bed at dusk.

Mojisola

nykmedia wrote: »

I have several very noisy hens that always, without fail, announce the arrival of an egg. One starts and then that sets off a chain reaction. I always laugh when I read coments about hens being quiet because it's a myth! LOL Ex battery hens can be quieter as they are into their second season of laying by the time they reach gardens, but younger hens just starting laying can get noisy. Think about it - a hen laying an egg is similar to her giving birth - wouldn't you get noisy if you'd to do that every other day with no way of avoiding it? :rotfl:

The noise chickens make after egg-laying goes back to when they were free-living, forest creatures. A hen needs to be tucked away, keeping quiet and safe from predators while she lays her egg. Once that's happened, she needs to know where the rest of the flock have moved to while she's been busy. She calls, they answer, and they can all get back together again.

Frugaldom

Thanks Mojisola, but I still don't fancy being a small hen laying a big egg every day. I'd cluck just at the thought of it. :rotfl: Some of mine cluck so loudly that I can hear them from the bottom of our road. Does that mean if they weren't freeranging and were all shut in together that they wouldn't be so noisy or is it totally instinctive? They don't all do it, most of the older ones are content to just go lay an egg and then get on with their day.

KAAT_LADY

good morning guys ,,just a question ,, my old hen has I think something stuck in her crop as she keeps stretching and bending it ,,anyone know what i can do???

Mojisola

nykmedia wrote: »

Thanks Mojisola, but I still don't fancy being a small hen laying a big egg every day. I'd cluck just at the thought of it. :rotfl: Some of mine cluck so loudly that I can hear them from the bottom of our road. Does that mean if they weren't freeranging and were all shut in together that they wouldn't be so noisy or is it totally instinctive? They don't all do it, most of the older ones are content to just go lay an egg and then get on with their day.

I know what you mean but luckily the chickens don't seem to mind so much.:D

I think it's instinctive. I've never know chooks make a noise while they're laying - it's afterwards they can set up a racket.

It does seem to make a difference what breed they are. Some of our bantams are really noisy after laying and, when one starts, the sisters all join in whereas the other breeds just ignore the fuss entirely. Our older ones are also more relaxed about the whole thing - it's just another egg, not worth making a fuss over!

Mojisola

KAAT_LADY wrote: »

good morning guys ,,just a question ,, my old hen has I think something stuck in her crop as she keeps stretching and bending it ,,anyone know what i can do???

We've used a dose of olive oil - though I suppose you can use any edible oil - to help with this. We use a dropper to get it into the bird. It's a two-person job!