For all you chicken lovers....update...

[Shirls]

They are fine samwiseg, thank you for asking. That breed copes with the cold exceptionally well. Besides that, because it's frosty in the mornings now I give them porridge with a few sultanas in for breakfast, so they come out of the coop to a warm breakfast!!

[samwiseg]

SPOILT CHICKENS!

[Shirls]

Oh we've had fun and games this morning!! Worse than the meep family as far as laying eggs is concerned!

Dusty is wandering around wingeing and carrying on, she wants to lay, but hasn't been told the best place to lay yet!! I don't think she knows that she wants to lay actually!! I have shown her the nest box which is there and open for business all the time (lined with paper and hay). I popped her front half in so she could see but she wouldn't go right in. An hour later I put her whole self in so she could get the comfortable feel of the place. Seconds later she came out.

I came indoors and hardboiled a couple of eggs and have placed one in each nest box. Nice and warm they are.

Now, not thinking to close the coop - Dusty has been in there and scratched all the newspaper up!!!

So, an hour later I have put newspaper on top of the hay in the nest boxes, with the hardboiled egg on top! Now both Dusty and Hazel (at least I think it's Hazel) are closed in the run, coop closed, with a nice warm egg to sit on, each!

Watch this space, we may be getting eggs very soon. Otherwise I shall have to borrow Frank and Betty skysmum!!

[Shirls]

NEWS FLASH!!! Dusty, the one on the far right in the third picture; laid her first egg today!!!! OK so it wasn't IN the nest box, but it was ON the top of the nest box! We have a shelf for the chooks to sit on in the run and there is a small gap at the back to allow for their fluffy bums, so she must have been sitting on the shelf and the egg dropped through onto the nest box. It did break unfortunately, so no egg for breakfast in the morning YET!! All this happened while I was out too, so after all that pallaver this morning trying to 'cater' for her needs, I missed the whole event.

The reason I was out: I had to have four new tyres fitted on my car, yes FOUR, I only went in for one!! Grrrrr

[jellybean]

Sorry if I'm asking a stupid question Shirls   If you were out.......How do you know who laid the egg 
OUCH.....re the new tyres 

[Shirls]

Well jellybean, it was quite easy really! None of the other chickens are laying at the moment. I suppose what you don't understand is: 1) Dusty is one of the three babies - none of whom have laid yet and 2) She was the first to start squatting!!

Dusty 'squats' when you go to stroke her which means she is ready to lay. Hazel will be next as she also is in 'squatting' mode. The two old girls haven't laid since they went broody, but I'm hoping the babies will 'kick start' them back into action, especially when all three start laying!

It's all good fun this keeping chicken thing!!!

[jellybean]

Thanks for explaining Shirls. As you can see I know absolutely nothing about chickens. But I do enjoy seeing and hearing about your girlies 

[Hezz]

Nov 30, 2016 9:49:52 GMT samwiseg said:

SPOILT CHICKENS!

Spoilt chooks, I was going to say ..... definitely!!!

[samwiseg]

Chicken language is so interesting! Listen to this:

Recently you might have noticed that your pullets, who used to scatter and run when you approached them, now stop, drop and squat at your feet. But before you pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself that all these weeks of bringing them treats has finally paid off and now they are cool with you petting them, keep reading to find out what that 'squat' really means.

When they are just about mature enough to lay eggs, young hens will start to squat down when you go to pet them - or even just walk past them. They bend their legs and crouch, and sort of flatten their wings and backs. Here's why:

They are Reaching Egg Laying Maturity

By squatting, a soon-to-be-laying pullet is signaling that she is ready to lay eggs, and you may very well see her first egg within days of when she first begins to squat.

Submission

Squatting is also a sign of submission - a shift into the mating position for a rooster. This goes hand in hand with the laying thing above, because clearly there's no point in being mounted by a rooster if the hen isn't laying eggs yet.

Just because you don't have a rooster in your flock, this won't dissuade the hens from being submissive to a member of their 'human' family. In a way, they see YOU as the rooster.

Info sourced from: www.fresheggsdaily.com/2013/11/understanding-chicken-behavior.html

Also:



Cool eh?!

[Hezz]

Oh dear; I missed the best part of this page when I posted this morning!!! Now I am wiping away tears of laughter ..... what a good thing to be doing!!

[Shirls]

Wherever do you find these things samwiseg, I know, Google is a wonderful learning tool!!

[Hezz]

Have you ever been likened to a rooster before, Shirls???

[skysmum]

Ohhh Shirls, ive only just caught up with the chook thread. We seem to be having similar but different egg problems , you want your girls to lay and i want my girl to stop . Betty has laid every day since the baby's were weaned and i even had 2 today, whats that all about .

Bless them having warm porridge for breakfast, the Meeps are still getting their warm baby mush in the mornings too which they wait for. We both know now what the other is toddling about doing first thing in the morning, yaaaawn

[Shirls]

Dec 1, 2016 19:56:44 GMT Hezz said:

Have you ever been likened to a rooster before, Shirls???

[Shirls]

That's a really interesting link you posted there samwiseg, loads of other information which will come in very handy in the future. Thanks for the link.