The eggs are diminishing

rick

rick

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Down to one layer I think. Well Lulu may still be working the nest box but is looking very pale in the comb. Pom was the first to throw in the towel and start shedding feathers a couple of weeks ago. It will be good to have them all safely off lay for the year but it is such a long eggless time ahead!
 
How old are they now Rick? My new pullets are now about 23 weeks. One is laying a small egg every day, one has been crouching for over a week but nothing yet, and the other two don’t seem to be making much progress. So I expect two of them should make it into proper lay before the days get too short, but I’m wondering about the others.
We are enjoying our little gourmet 45gram boiled egg each, with home made toast, every second day, for breakfast, though. Had forgotten what a difference there is between shop eggs and ‘proper’ ones.
 
We will have had our girls for a year on 1 October when they were POL. They have started the moult, mainly on their necks, but are still producing an egg a day each, even with our short days here in the outer Hebs. Morag misses occasionally but that's normal for her. Not looking forward to buying shop eggs!
 
They were young pullets a good month, maybe more, before POL. I remember they were still finishing off a bag of medicated growers when we got them. That must have been early 2018 so they will be coming up to 3 years old. The first winter they stopped laying briefly and hardly moulted at all. Last year was feathers everywhere and at least 3 months off. I think it wasn't till March this year we got the first egg.
Those first pullet eggs are almost too cute to eat - almost!
With these CLBs its like 'Hey I'm moulting - not laying - check the contract!' (inc. generous annual holiday entitlement.)
It always amazes me that they wait for the first frost and chilly winds before throwing off half their clothes!
 
rick said:
With these CLBs its like 'Hey I'm moulting - not laying - check the contract!' (inc. generous annual holiday entitlement.)
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That sounds just like my CLB, Tufty! She's shed about 3 feathers per day for the last few days, so that's the last of our blue eggs until March...
 
dianefairhall said:
Three eggs again here today. I assumed that as the days are shortening quite rapidly they would be slowing down now. They have been such good layers all year and I think they deserve their rest now. They don't seem to agree.
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I would expect your one-year-old hybrids to lay through their second winter, as they didn’t start until this Spring - and to lay all next summer and then stop and have a proper moult next Autumn. (That would be the point at which they would be for the chop unless lucky enough to become exbatts....)
 
The only thing that will keep them in lay when they would otherwise stop is enough artificial light bouncing around to extend the day length but that's probably irrelevant with any hen that is a reasonable layer (when in lay) and under 18 months. They might still almost come to a standstill when it gets properly cold and dark at 4:30 Diane (Ugh! Not looking forward to that!)
 
It doesn't get really cold here in the Western Isles, Rick. It was colder in Yorkshire. We get overnight frosts but they soon disappear and very little snow. It's the strong winds that give the chill factor. I even got an egg on Xmas day last year ( from Izzie, the only one laying then).
 
I thought for a moment that you were going to say that (in the wind) poor Izzie laid the same egg four times :-)
 
Ash, the only one out of my 4 pullets who is laying every day, is physically the biggest bird as well as the most mature, and has taken on being Head Girl with a vengeance. My favourite, dear little Willow, who must be mainly a CLB and is by far the smallest, is very much bottom of the pecking order. So much so that when I go in with their afternoon treat feed, I save Willow’s portion and when the others all have their beaks down on the plate and Willow has been chased away by threats from Ash, I quietly put her handful down in a sheltered corner and stand guard to shoo away anybody else who tries to interfere, while she works as fast as possible to get outside of her share of a lovely warm damp mash (made mainly of pellets but garnished with mealworms, sunflower seeds and corn, plus shredded cabbage.) She looks up at me to check that I’m going to help, and then quietly extracts herself from the scrum round the plate and sneaks over to our agreed meeting place before the others notice she’s gone.
 
Aww Marigold, you really are a softie, despite how you sometimes make out you you're not :-) I'm going to search the posts to see if you added pics of your new girls.

Iv'e only been getting an egg from Miss Muffet. Mabel hasn't laid one since Feb/March I think. Barbie the same, but she's an old girl now and in the middle of a moult to make matters worse. Rather now that winter,I suppose.
 
That is lovely, Marigold, I hope little Willow benefits soon from her grub. I'm pleased to say ours don't seem to have a pecking order so we've not had those problems and they're all big lassies.
Morag is the boldest so is always at the front but the others don't let her have her own way. Morag found a slug the other day and ran off with it, hotly pursued by the other two - I don't know how they expected to divide it into three!
 
My biggest chicken, Pom, is the most timid. Well, I think an all round MOT is due as its always easy to assume they are doing well otherwise. Its never a popular exercise! Pom is defiantly off lay but I think both Mo and Lulu are laying (there are a few too many for Mo to be the only one.) At least I have worked out that Pom's eggs are the slightly greener ones.
Slugs - eventually down in one - yuck!
Meanwhile Linden has moulted his tail and has a new one coming along. Same old problem as every year with his foot feathers - one gets broken and he has to have a dab of purple and anti-peck (the patent boots if necessary) but all seems well. Funny little guy - love him to bits. They are a very tight knit group now.
 
Yes, we try not to remember the slugs when eating the eggs. Scots Gaelic for egg is ugh!

Three eggs again today, no more feathers lost so I guess the girls are not going to bother this year. Shame because we wanted Izzie to grow the feathers back on her bum where the neighbours' dog took a lump out of her.
 
Still three eggs almost daily, as normal, but two of the girls are missing their neck feathers, Izzie the Bluebell and Skye the Sussex. Only Morag (who is the one who misses laying most often) has no sign of missing feathers. Still not sure whether they'll take us by surprise and suddenly moult.
 
There seems no logic to it! Pom is still off lay, about half way through her moult and spending a lot of time in the dust bash (presumably to remove feather sheaths?) Mo and Lulu are still laying and I suspect they will wait until its -5 and an icy wind is blowing to moult. Pom is the sensible one!
 
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