Jump to content
alih

moulting

Recommended Posts

My girls have always gone into a moult in the Autumn, whatever age. So my new youngsters last year went into moult time before they had actually started laying!

 

They do stop laying during the moult, although my experience has been that the time they stop for varys from hen to hen - and seemed with Georgie to be a longer time as she got older. They are a bit low during the moult - and they often look pretty rough. I think that the time not laying gives them a bit of a break during quite a stressful time for their bodies. I give my girls some spice and extra food during the moult, although I don't know if that is what you are supposed to do.

 

I always feel sorry for them; they lose feathers, especially around the neck, and their body language show them to be rather down. But then when they perk up its really great to see. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm just making this up as I go along (trying to remember from reading posts :wink: ) so will probably be corrected but I think they only have "mini moults" in their first year. Not sure about frequency after that - once a year? Yes, I think they do stop laying but don't know how long for (depends on each chicken perhaps?)

 

Not much help, was I :roll::lol: .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking at my egg chart (yes, I know, I'm sad ...) eggs tailed off in Oct from Georgie; the young girls weren't laying at all then as they were too young. Georgie was down to three a week by the beginning of Oct and eggs stopped completely for the week beginning Oct 15th

 

then the young girls started laying week beginning Nov 26th, I had 9 in the week beginning 10th Dec, 13 for the week beginning 17th Dec and 20 for the week beginning on Xmas Eve.

 

Georgie started again in the week beginning 7th january, and I now have all of them laying. I got 23 eggs last week, 29 the week before that, and 31 this week. However Georgie is now no longer so I am down to 7 hens; and the pure breeds don't lay as well as Georgie used to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

an egg chart! Now there's an idea! I read about Georgie on another link - what a sad tale - but everyone has such different stories about laying, moulting etc...I get really confused! Just hope that my chooks don;t start moulting yet as only one of them has just started laying! Must sort out a chart for our 2 - v. excited at this prospect! Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

an egg chart! Now there's an idea!

 

Funny you should say that :) . There is such a thing .... :wink:

 

Mine isn't very impressive; its an excel spreadsheet. I have number of hens, number of eggs per week. It works out eggs per week per hen and graphs it up for me - shows the trends.

 

I've only been doing it since the middle of last year, but hopefully it will show how their laying varies through the year and I may be able to predict egg numbers .....

 

But hens being intrinsicly unreliable and contrary, I probably won't be able to predict anything at all ,,,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

my goodness you guys are organised. I have a fairly basic notion of a chart - ie my family's calendar ( we have 4 kids) which is, sadly I know, colour coded for each kid school hols etc...so have just added a dot for an egg, different colour for each chicken...not quite an excel spreadsheet and think I shall keep quiet on that front or my partner will embrace the idea far too fully and I will never see him again! :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Richard have looked at your pics and your hens are beautiful - what sort are they grey speckledy one and the creamy one?

 

thanks very much.

 

The big ones are Orpingtons - they are the white. light grey with black bits. I have a blue Orp as well. The cuckoo ones, speckledy and dapper, are a Maran and a North Holland.

 

I must put some up to date pictures up as they have grown up a lot now and are much bigger and smarter!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yes do! the speckledy blue ish ones are gorgeous...wish my dog was quite as laid back about our chickens as yours seems to be - he would love to have a go and I fear my dreams of summer days with chooks and hound pottering peacefully in the garden will remain but dreams! :cry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm trying to put some photos up but getting an error saying the number of electrons has been exceded, or the wires are too small or something. the files are only about 16k small now I've shrunk them to next to nothing, so I just don't know what the problem is.

 

I'll have another go later when the person guarding the Omlet gallery might be asleep or distracted.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually what it says is;

 

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 67108864 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 83886081 bytes) in /home/omletuk/public_html/gallery/modules/exif/lib/exifer/makers/olympus.inc on line 155

 

I think its computer speak for 'go away Richard and stop bothering me'.

 

the file size is 37.4 KB 'cos I've shrunk it down to web page size.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...